Kotra – Freigeist

Kotra sculpts a brutal digital industrial landscape with the unrelenting rolling rhythms of “Freigeist”. Hard to precisely pin down, Kotra marries groove to noise with a hypnotic effect. Melodies barely exist for all works in service of the rhythm. By choosing such a greyscale temperament the album feels best when taken in as a whole. The atmospherics of the album have a spellbinding effect while they ebb and flow. At times Kotra appears to let their sounds work in a funhouse of mirrors sort of fashion, never allowing anything to remain stable for too long. With this state of flux all becomes uncertain. This uncertainty presents a tremendous tension which rests at the very heart of the album.

Aptly named “The Capital Of Death – Contorted City” appears to at times reference the early days of power electronics as the massive slabs of sound simply crush everything in their path. Continuing down this most eerie path “Inhaling A Black Fog” allows no light to come into the proceedings, instead fully embracing the darkness. Slowly but surely Kotra strips the song away into its absolute essentials. On “Acid Walk On A Boiling Tar” Kotra goes for a slightly light touch, showing off a nimbleness of sorts, even flirting with a proper shuffling tempo. By far the most jagged raw track appears on the skin-crawlingly creepy “Synthesized Cocktails Dream”. Perfectly bringing all that came before it into a singular vision “Morning Hypertension Anthem” brings the album to a close.

With “Freigeist” Kotra delves into darker impulses, creating vast unusual worlds that seem to at times teem with dread.

Beach Sloth Origins:

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