♫♪  Derek Piotr - “Repeating Bloom (Simon Whetham)”

Fresh off the diabolical earth-grind of 2018’s Grunt, a masterful study in corrosive repetition of decaying samples and electronics, a sprawling beast of constant chipped friction, a decisive and determined diary of live and spitting electrical wires, Derek Piotr hits us with Repeating Bloom, a remix EP that casts the Grunt track in decidedly different hues. We know how Piotr works, how Piotr crafts his tactile electro in ways that prove indescribable to anyone who hasn’t encountered the elements at the ass end of the Periodic Table, the ones forced into existence for a fraction of a second before huffily shedding their covalent bonds. These are the elements that Piotr plays around with; he’s grinding away at solid Lawrencium, he is.

His remixers knock it back a notch, allowing the digital detritus of “Repeating Bloom” to, well, bloom, as Elsa Hewitt injects some lovely vocals into her slowed down, dare I say trip-hop revision, black flowers bursting from every surface she contacts. Steeezio’s clipped music box rendition adds some space to the track without losing the original’s staccato frequencies. Chaircrusher holds the track under water until it evolves gills. In addition, there’s a burbling anti-techno version of the track “Let” by Reuben Walton, an appendix to the onslaught of “Repeating Bloom” – although no “Repeating Bloom” here sounds alike or, ahem, repeats.

But you’ve come for the Simon Whetham version of “Repeating Bloom.” That’s not a bad decision.

Whetham’s version dredges similar sonic territory as the original, its unsettling digitizations scraping through barren landscapes, magnetizing local filaments. Stopping to breathe at points, the silence is disturbing, but not for long – “Repeating Bloom” moves again, differently, weirder, uninhibited.

Oh, you can listen to it too! Right here:

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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