LP – Subtext

James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, aka Emptyset, mark the fiftieth release for the Subtext label (founded by Ginzburg) with Ash. It is somewhat of a return to the label’s roots– the duo recorded the album in 2023 in Bristol, the city where Subtext was founded. Emptyset take advantage of spatialized recording techniques, dynamic controls, and a series of analogue machines, giving life to polymorphic, synthetic and sculptural compositional structures, echoing the sound system culture which have been central to everything that has emerged from Bristol since the nineties. However, Emptyset’s approach doesn’t look for easy solutions – this is a hard, experimental sound, full of rhythmic distortions and feedback, all tinged with industrial impulses and noisy, dubby overlays. In short, the duo’s work evolves towards more abstract and conceptual horizons, without ever fully breaking from their origins, which was influenced by a more rhythmic relationship with music. We barely exceed sixteen minutes with the five tracks presented. The listening sensation is one of extreme compactness and density, of pressure, turbulence and materiality, right from the opening track, ‘flint’, which stings through a progression of the primordial beats, saturating the listener’s mental space and taking them into a timeless sphere of perception. ‘Flame’ features strong wavering industrial tremors and incessant hits, while in ‘ember’ the feedback stands out as the envelopes become more fractured – this is in the DNA of those who engage with low frequencies, experienced gained from warehouse parties and raves. In ‘cinder’, a sense of dismemberment and splitting of the elements in play is evident, as in the title track, ‘ash’, where the process is continued with underlying dark, tense beats. Finally, ‘rise’, is a powerful production that is equally engaging as everything that comes before it. Emptyset are reminiscent of the brutalism of a certain gray English architecture from the seventies with their cold, concrete, yet fascinating and layered sounds. It is a difficult listen at some points, strident and threatening, but decidedly physical – moving between beats and the avant-garde in a passionate and unique way.

 

Emptyset – ash