I have to admit, their name is maddening (no doubt by design), but SHXCXCHCXSH have been steadily releasing their own brand of rough-around-the-edges experimental techno for a few years now, perhaps even being the main attraction for Shifted’s Avian imprint. I find myself enjoying this one better than most of their past efforts. I’ve liked the overall aesthetic of the project from the start, but I’ll admit that sometimes their tracks can leave me a little cold (perhaps also by design). The cumulative playlist here (wherein each subsequent track adds another “Ss” until the 15x of the title) sounds a little more balanced to me, still crusty and gnarled at times, but just as often beatless and loopy.
Many of the tracks are also shorter, which avoids any single idea from overstaying its welcome (though perhaps at times cut a bit short in the tradeoff), and the album flows deftly from one cut to the next. But what I like the most about this one is that over the span of these 15 cuts, SHXCXCHCXSH have almost entirely broken free of dancefloor convention. Compared to some of the fury of their early EPs, many of these cuts feel sublime. At times they recall vintage industrial and tape-looping music, but more often than not, these tracks feel like they’ve wandered off into their own private creative playground. Ninth cut “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” has some of the serious lurch of recent Black Dog, but with the extra tooth and grit that is consistent with the project’s repertoire. But for each of those more metered cuts there is something as bizarre as the circular, staticky throb of the eleventh cut or the subsequent backwards sampling. Only three cuts on the album surpass the five-minute mark, which somehow feels novel when albums seem to be getting longer and longer. As a result, the patient stride of the thirteenth cut, the longest track on the album, carries far more weight as a focal point. Between its typically frustrating track titles and slippery sound, it’s difficult to do the music justice here, but I find it one of the more interesting and captivating electronic albums this year. Highly recommended.
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