Cory Strand — Cultural Subordination
This two disc CDR set deconstructions/remoulds just a single track- the bland female synth pop of Ellie Goulding’s Lights. The orignal track was released in March 2011, and went onto become number 2 on the billboard top 100- it also became one of the few songs to stay nearly a year in the chart too.
The sets first disc takes in five tracks, and these start off with more recognizable remixes, going onto complete deconstructions. The disc opens with the three & a half minutes of “Lights(Recessive Remix)", which finds Strand distance & muffling out the songs bright yet fake pop bounce- this I guess highlights the tracks bland-ness by compacting it pop shine to a soulless yet oddly haunting sonic shell. Next we have the just over twelve & a half minutes of “Hyperreailty Ascendant”, and this starts off with a distorted looped sample of twenty or so seconds of the track- this is feed out into a stuck mantra. As the track progresses Strand slowly but surely turns the distorted up; at first the track feels annoying & blandly inclosing, but fairly soon it becomes more & more hypotonic as Strand creates this HNW/ locked pop cross-breed.
Track three is entitled “ Dripping And Pustulent” and this just over ten minute track finds Stand morphing the track into a unrecognisable hazed ‘n’ bobbing ambient drift- this is made out of vague & almost shapeless vibe like muffled pluses which seem to slow knock & bounce around you in a quite yet disorientating manner. Next is the wonderfully entitled “Ensconced In the Nectar”, and this fourteen & a half minute track sees Strand working the track into un-recognisable brooding, droning & slowly circling mass of walled noise. The thick & hope sucking ‘wall’ slow batters & bays around you like a half speed bass ribbed storm, yet you can almost make out a slurred & sludge groove with in the tracks guts- all told it’s a most unusual & disorientating take on the HNW form.
Lastly on disc one we have “Vapidity”, and this is the longest of the five tracks at near on the thirty nine minute mark. This track finds Strand in slow motion & very quiet ambient setting; as he slowly unfolds a drifting & aquatic like mass of bubbling & ebbing tones. Once again this track bares no resemblance to the original Goulding track, as Strand creates this haunting & eerier slowly revolving sonic world that’s built around a few small textural bobs ‘n’ drones. The track gives one the impression of slow drifting through a vast tank full in some fishless aquarium- it’s booth coldly soothing & bare moving, yet it's also very entrancing.
Onto the second disc, and this is just taken up by a single track, the one hour & seven minutes of “Dancing Amidst The Chocking Twilight”. This track offers up a dense & bass bound brutal slice of walled noise that finds Strand creating this repetitive & reverberation sonic landscape of juddering & rumbling tones. The ‘wall’ has a great intense & crushing feel to it, and it gives one the feeling of walking through some vast under ground ancient temple or cavern that’s slowly been put under attack by sludge ribbed earth quake or internal landslide. As the track progresses the ‘wall’ appears to get more enclosing & intense, yet the tones also seems to become more rapid, less reverb licked and almost slow-mo chopper blade seared too. All told it’s a most devastating, yet hypnotically rewarding slice of crushing walled noise.
“Cultural Subordination” really turns the whole often bland & ego fed concept of remixes on it’s head to create a series of tracks that effectively reshape pop bland-ness into huge crushing walled noise brutality, grey yet entrancing ambient studies, and pop/HNW cross-breeds. Unfortunately this had a tiny pressing of just five copies, so lets hope Strand decides to re-issue this at some point as it really is the most re-warding & creative re-focusing of pop bland-ness.