Dosis Letalis — Moodchangers
The release appeared on Australian wall noise label Needle and Knife- with the physical edition of the release seeing the four black ink stamped CDR’s coming to a DVD case. On the outside of the case, we get a black and white collage cover, which matches other releases I’ve seen from the label- with the front main image been a fairly bizarre/ quirky image of a group of three people with cartoon-like bird masks on. This CDR boxset is now long gone- so ones only option now is a digital download from the labels Bandcamp.
Each of the tracks here is simply named Moodchangers with roman numerals after- so that means on disc one we have “Moodchangers I”. This track opens with a very pared back & tense blend of compressed rolling low end and pop-to-snapping static, which together brings a very nice vibe of glitched stern-ness. At around the seven-minute mark, we get are first shift, and here we move into a mixture of drag-bound juddering & detailed blends of small drags, snaps, and jitters. As we move through the track the shifts don’t seem to follow any pattern or timings- so sometimes a certain set of textures will only stay for say four/ five minutes, and others for a lot longer- so certainly this makes for an eventful ride.
Moving onto the second disc, and "Moodchangers II"- and here we begin with a loose & uneven blend of droning grain churn, this is surrounded by a selection of curling crisp judders. On this track it’s not until around the twenty-two-minute mark we get the first drastic change- and this sees a blend of descending judder with sweeping grains of smaller feasting tone. The next main shift doesn't occur until around twenty minutes later when we find a blend of thumbed 'n' murky hacks, set grain fuzz, and skating subtones. We get one more switch before the end of the track.
On disc three we, of course, have "Moodchangers III"- and this opens with one of my favorite selections of textures of the whole release. The initial ‘wall’ is built around a line of blend of low-end pop ‘n’ drag pattern, and slowly jittering ‘n’ combing static play- together these create such a deeply hypnotic & entrancing vibe- at times it feels like the low end becomes more dominate and rapid, at others it’s the jittering static that's to the front, but in reality I’m guessing the whole thing is set & firm, I really could have listened to this ‘wall’ for the whole length of the track. Sadly these textures are fairly short-lived, and at the 11 minute mark we drop into another set of textures- and while these are inventive enough they lack the pull of the first set- the ‘wall’ here is built around a bumpy ‘n’ slightly hazed rubbing low end, and this is weaved with weaves of skating static. Around the twenty-minute mark, we get another shift, then another few shifts before the end- each is ok, but I think this track highlighted best my issue with this release as a whole- the shifts in textures, that often lead to lesser satisfying walls.
On the fourth and final disc, we have "Moodchangers IV"- and here we start out with the starkest and most sparse textures of the set- basically, we have a very spaced mixture of lightly rubbed and slurred judder, which is edged by micro pops of static. As the track moves on we get subtle shifts and adjustments in the textural set- with either light hisses come into play, slight more active judders, or new pops, compressed rips, or hacks come into place- through the first half of the track everything remains extremely sparse & tense. It’s only around at the thirty six-minute mark, that the low end becomes more rapid & spaced, though we still have low levels hiss & pop taking place. In it’s last quarter we drop down once again to tense, yet more rapid blend of rapid & detailed chop hack, and dry fire like hisses. Of the four tracks here I’d say this is the most impressing in regards to the knife-edge control of textures, and most of the shifts here are good- so as a result, I’d say this is most balanced & effective of the tracks here.
I've followed Dosis Letalis career since around 2016, and have always been impressed with both the quality and artistry of the project's work. And while the Moodchangers boxset certainly highlights the project as a great and inventive master of texture, I did feel most of the tracks here severed less than satisfying textural shifts- with really effective wall blends been followed by less so wall blends. When coming to finish off this review I felt very torn by the release- been impressed by the clever texture use, but less impressed by the compositions- so as a result found this tricky to mark/rate- I wanted to give it a 3.5, but as we only do half marks here I’ve gone for a three.