Like a Flashback

And odd sequence of events a couple days ago led to me getting back in touch with a bunch of old Ilictronix crew and friends - we did a little catchup here and there which was nice, we'd all fallen out of touch a long time ago. And that's not for any particular reason, more a case of us all having our own lives now (plus the US / Europe timezone divide between us doesn't help either). A lot of them are still making music so I figured why not take some time to look at them in more detail? After all, I've kept tabs on some of them but regrettably never really posted any so let's change that.

Enter Luin, those of you who have been around here for a long time may recognise the name Boba Fettuccini and their associated netlabel Power Glove Records. They were also part of the writing team way back when, we'd not always see eye-to-eye on all things (and to be fair, I was a bit of an obnoxious teen mad into Dubstep so understandable!) but I liked that, the beauty of the team back then was the variety we had elsewhere in our libraries beyond the uniting House that brought us here in the first place, I made tons of new discoveries that way.

Luin's work now is much more in line with how I remembered her non-House interests and contributions, a lot of Crystal Castles and the like. To quote her Discogs page: "Luin blends frank emotional honesty and existential dread with post-industrial, new wave and house influences". You need look no further than her latest Bandcamp offering, a 'live' version of Undead put together with bits and pieces from several live takes - don't let that description put you off, the finished piece is very clean. Luin totally nails the vibe outlined in her description, it feels very cinematic too, reminds me a lot of Gary Numan's Bed Of Thorns and some of the other tracks chosen for that GITS compilation. Though I must admit, Luin's has a more satisfying conclusion.



I mentioned this to her in our little exchange, but the aesthetics of her new work is on point as well, I have a weakness for Glitch anyway as its the kind of art I make already, but the use of it like here on Sync is beautifully done. On that point as well, something that really shines on these tracks is the sheer cathartic nature behind them - tracks like Sync exude this powerful, almost palpable rawness that I myself have tried to capture in the past. The rawness is compounded even more with the methodology behind this track, as noted on the Bandcamp page it was put together on a 24 hour turnaround.



And finally, Resigned To Rust, which plays out a little bit like a Freezepop track albeit with that now expected darkness behind it. Listening back to write about it for this post I get a little bit of an ADULT. feeling from the lyrical delivery to boot. It's great to see her still active after all this time, doubly so after following up on a bunch of artists we used to know and finding so many dead links or abandoned profiles. To quote a little bit from our exchange - she's out there 'making the music I always wanted to make but felt I couldn't'.



And that'll be all for now, I have might have another one of these to come yet so keep an eye out for that coming soon. In the meantime I hope you've enjoyed this little foray into the past and more importantly look forward to the future. Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF