Xqui was a surprising newcomer in the noise/electronic underground world; refusing to reveal his real name and working with mysterious samples processed through mobile phone apps, he has so far created a number of diverse releases spanning the distance between dark ambient, soundscapes, noise, and epic levitational hymnal ambient. In his new release, which was brought out just a few days ago, he presents an even more expansive painting of sounds; starting with the more surprising additions, there are a few - so to speak - more conventional and accessible tracks; there's "Cypriot," a collaboration with Geiger von Muller, which starts with typical cryptic ambient and builds on a weird acoustic guitar loop; there's "Epiphany," a tribal-sounding rhythmic track that urges the listener to dance naked like possessed and sounds a little bit like William Bennett's Cut Hands, and there's "Valley," which sounds almost like monotonous 80s electro-EBM without the rhythm, but with a bright melody on top. And then there's some of his darkest and most feverish ambient soundscapes, of which I can distinguish "Deathbed," a track with an amazing ringing keyboard sound hovering and returning over layers of sound created by a female voice and a distant percussive sound, as well as "Kismat," a muffled chaos of reverse voices and a swirly loop that just creates fever. I have referred in another post to Xqui's soundscapes as Lovecraftian horror music for the urban individual, and this album reiterates this likening; even the "lighter" moments have an ominous feel about them, and bring to my mind the clubs presented in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows's The Courtyard in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where Aldo Sax investigates murders and ends up under the influence of the Great Old Ones. Dizzying music, worth hearing and supporting financially, so go to Xqui's bandcamp and donate something to this exceptional sound shaper. 2019 cd on Wormhole World.
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