- Sepehr debuts on Dekmantel with an EP of shadowy, immersive techno.
- New York-based Sepehr Alimagham has come a long way since his debut a decade ago. After finding his way with releases on labels like SPE:C and Dark Entries, the Iranian-American producer gleaned new inspiration from his heritage through his imprint Shaytoon Records, which highlights dark and psychedelic acid, breakbeat, dubstep and trip-hop from artists of the Iranian diaspora. He's kept busy, particularly in the past year or so, releasing an album, Pomegranate Skies in fall 2023, and this year releasing Do his second EP as Flower Storm with Kasra V. Earlier this month landing his Dekmantel debut with a murky techno EP, Genesis Domain.
Genesis Domain is mood-altering music at its finest. The lead single and title track is an entryway to its mysterious haze, the opening Goosebumps-esque melody acting as a coaxing finger. The song's slow descent includes a perfectly timed chord change that plunges listeners farther into its subterranean depths, where acid lines gurgle and a slightly distorted vocal flashes in and out like shadows on a cloudy day. "Twisted Solstice" takes the skeleton of Radiohead's 2000 classic "Idioteque," peeling away Thom Yorke's bittersweet vocals about an apocalyptic wasteland. Sepehr amplifies the song's glitchy melancholy this way. The chunky, blown out kicks are front-and-center, the original's four-chord synthesizer becomes an apparition of itself, while drums scatter over foreboding alarm beeps.
The textures and sounds that shroud the percussion on Genesis Dream means these tracks linger in the mind for more than just their clubby drive. The start-stop electro breakbeat of "Delicate Senses" is made whole by its brooding atmosphere, a rumbling three-note sub bassline and wisps of a feminine voice passing by. By the song's midpoint, an ominous bell fills the soundscape, and it's equal parts grounding and unnerving. What sounds like snippets of bird caws in "Queen Of Demons" is sound design so vivid that I stopped the music upon the first listen to make sure I wasn't hearing a flock outside my window. The drums shuffling on "Planet Lonely" skip hastily forward before moonwalking back, but even more delightful is the earworm deep house melody—light on its feet, maintaining a sparkly bounce throughout.
Lista de sequência de músicas01. Genesis Domain
02. Delicate Senses
03. Twisted Solstice
04. Planet Lonely
05. Queen of Demons