#ptdd

[ambulanceindisguise]

Post traumatic dream disorder

and who cares

that you’ve dreamt about

a different man

every night

for the past two weeks

and every time

you tell them

you love them

they tell you

they won’t

who cares

everyone dreams

their

own dreams

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 299: Post Traumatic Drum Disorder / MONTY / DJ Ungel

Flippen Disks, the Amsterdam based record label run by MONTY, debuted a few months ago with FD001, a 12” of spacious rhythmic psychedelia and cosmic rave ritualism. Not only serving as the debut release for the label, FD001 also marks the first release of Post Traumatic Drum Disorder, a moniker of Julius van Ijperen, who here presents the epic length “PTDD,” a track moving through polyrhythmic machine beat expanses, future jazz hand drum exotics, and abstracted ocean pad wavefronts, before climaxing into a slamming breakbeat anthem. As well, MONTY appears with a cut of his own entitled “Haybo,” which inhabits an interstellar forest landscape wherein 90s chill-out textures and shadowy currents of body music intertwine while space jazz melodics flutter amidst mysterious choral auras. Elsewhere, van Ijperen (as PTDD) and MONTY combine forces for “Tamboe,” which overlays a world of vibrant rhythmic intensity with hushed breaths, mouth harp fusion synthesis, psychosonic fx tapestries, and militant bass pulses that filter into acid hypnosis. And capping it all off is a deeply esoteric and wonderfully far-out breakbeat trance trip from candomblé and Mirror Zone man DJ Ungel, an artist who I’ve been eager to hear more of ever since the shamanic trip-outs of last year’s Transpirits 12”.

Post Traumatic Drum Disorder / MONTY / DJ Ungel - FD001 (Flippen Disks, 2019) Post Traumatic Drum Disorder’s “PTDD” comes to life on mechanized polyrhythms, as tapped hats hiss, kick drums pulse, and percussive textures skitter overhead. Galactic blasts and mutant snares careen through hyperspace delays as melodic tom-tom rhythms are sequenced into pure hypnosis…like a conga line of cyborgs dancing feverishly through some jungle of mystery. The hi-hats take on a future jazz swing and percussive echo fx create strange firework patterns throughout the spectrum, with shakers and stick clicks adding a further sense hypnotic movement. Gentle pad gases descend over the mix while Roland cowbells percolate amidst robot vocalizations and as the track progresses, the rhythms slowly break apart until all that remains are heavenly waves of sci-fi synthesis. Touches of spiritual jazz swim through the ethereal currents and abstracted chord clusters…like Alice Coltrane calling out to the soul of the cosmos using analog synthesis…with tremolo waves and fluid decay trails fading into mist. At some point the conga-line tribalisms return, with shaker panoramas surrounding hot hat taps and weirdo voices. Then comes a moment of pure bliss, as a snare drum starts cracking on the beat, transitioning what was once a tribal chugger into a peak-time breakbeat anthem. Minimalistic blasts of synthesis flow overhead and the shakers and cymbals push the body towards breakdance euphoria, with frog croaks and electro-gurgles swimming through the ether. And towards the end, after drifting through another ambient jazz paradise, subsonic bass distortions filter in from silence and transmute into cosmic transcendence, with the body and spirit uniting through pure synthetic ritualism before van Ijperen drops us into another tribal ceremonial, which climbs again towards a celestial breakbeat climax awash in polychrome synthesis.

PTDD and MONTY’s “Tamboe” begins with rhythmic abstraction…with tinny cymbals hissing, snares popping, and tambourines rattling into chaos. Then we cut into a hypno-pulse led by shakers and shining bell tones, which also features timbales and rimshots cracking while sci-fi sonics are threaded through the air. Lasers mimic birdsong, warm breaths sit above heady basslines that pulse off the beat, and aqua-squelches evolve into bubble formations before popping into nothingness…all while the rhythms stoke feverish body motions. The basslines filter into acidic fire as everything else cuts away, leaving space for dissonant currents of synthesis to wash across the mix…these mutant wavefronts bending through spectral motions while cymbals phase in and out of existence. Shakers and breaths return the track to a rainforest ritual, wherein palm-muted guitars communicate with liquid formations and zany toms fills fly amidst jungle jazz futurisms. At some point, the layers of cosmic detritus are replaced by strange fusion synthesis…almost sounding like a gimbri. Deep bass pulsations work back into the mix and push the body towards subsonic bliss while snares smack through sparkling clouds of bell-tone shimmer. And as the mix again reduces, cowbells, woodblocks, and congas begin an exotic dance, metallic cymbals whisper, and alien synthesizers evoke a mouth harp, which brings a touch of that strange Wolf Müller-style mysticism. Polyrhthmic storms fall over themselves before releasing into a propulsive glide, with machine claps giving the beat even more narcotic groove momentum. The kick drum cuts in and out as all melody and atmosphere are eventually abandoned, letting the virtual mouth harp electronics entrance the mind before it all devolves into a coda of hand drum spirituality.

Synthetic woodwinds spiral towards the cosmos in MONTY’s “Haybo” while hi-hats generate a tranced out pulse. Space age oscillations zoom and birds of the galaxy cry out as a lone rack tom pounds on the beat, with the background increasingly suffused by garbled interstellar transmissions. An exotic melody enters the scene…a sort of psychosonic tracer adding touches of futuristic jazz and evoking Future Sound of London’s Cascades 12” as well as the Northern Exposure classic “Cycles of Time” by Acoustic Hoods. Arps spiral in and out of control and smashing beats enter, generating a drunken tribal stutter that sounds like Heldon jamming through a zoner dance ceremonial. Smashed toms and shimmering cymbal taps move through industrial patterns before cutting away sharply, being replaced by gothic choirs that seem to emanate from the center of the universe…the track subtly transitioning back and forth between ambient rhythm ritualism and body music shadowspells. Choral wavefronts disperse into black mist and satellite bleeps burn into smoke, all while double-time cymbal patterns keep the mind locked into hypnosis. Suddenly, thick blasts of acid synthesis work into the mix…the gurgling sequences transmuting in real-time and pushing the vibe even more towards atmospheric EBM militance. Elsewhere, the rhythms disperse again as the choirs return, leading to a moment of shadowy voice sorcery. And as the ritualistic machine beats storm back in, hallucinogenic sequences now diffuse through the air before MONTY leads us through a brief climax wherein neon acid tracers weave psychedelic patterns. Later, as the exo-planetary jazz melodies dance through a forest dreamscape, tom-toms pound into oblivion amidst waves of static that flutter like insect wings. 

DJ Ungel’s “Tamboe (Adventure Mix)” is a complete transformation, using the barest semblance of form from the original to create a fantasy world of trance break ritualism. Electronics smear into a rainbow haze and tambourines lead us into some mysterious opium den, as a beaded curtain parts to reveal a world of hallucinogenic smoke wherein elven future flutes dance, ethnologic string instruments cast mystical spells, and subsonic bass energies pound against the body. Then comes a smooth drop into shifting breakbeat sorcery, with bell taps and tambourines sparkling and cavern liquids dripping upwards. Rhythmic elements cut out as the string instruments return to further entice the mind into a dopamine haze and as we drop back into the breakdance narcotica, huge blasts of bass synthesis wash over the body…these dark currents of sensuality floating the soul as liquid crystals are sequenced through aqueous atmospheres. Seascape tracers thread through mermaid choirs and swelling orchestrations rise from the depths as the drums remain unsettled, anxious, and constantly morphing, with trippy conga accents added by Niklas Wandt. Viscous acid lines gurgle and slide, new age angels dance through a shimmering sonic paradise, and hi-hats work through double and triple time rolls while melancholic arps dissolve into infinite bodies of fractal light. Things devolve into space age ambiance, with bass notes pulsing through a gemstone world of sequential ecstasy, only for the track to then ascend into the pure trance heavens, with epic melodies calling out towards a Goan sunset, ritualistic voices singing to the sky, and breakbeats cracking and gliding through the electrified air. And later, after another beatless breakdown awash in spectral acid madness and burning laser fire, the beats blast back in, now working through a low slung four-four ritual…a deep trance fever dream proceeding in slow motion and jacking through the liquid night while glowsticks paint shapes of neon ecstasy.

(images from my personal copy)