Stephen Hummel - Component (self-released)

Starting with a Carpenteresque cinematic piece and progressing through some hybrid skittering IDM synthwork into a second half of glitchy acid braindance mayhem - Stephen Hummel's (subtractiveLAD) latest has them covered. Recommended, currently PWYW.

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Tagged as “the most full on braindance / IDM music (he’s) ever made,” Stephen Hummel (aka subtractiveLAD) continues to pour himself headfirst into abstract electronic finagling, noting Component as “analogue synths and a drum machine put through a granular meat grinder.” The description couldn’t be more on point.

Six tracks shattering an hour’s worth of crunched rhythms, both dark and light, “With Both Hands” rips through frenetic microscopic blips and stretched synth noises as thick as a morning fog. “Positronic” then shifts its focus on calmer, more melodic bursts—Hummel carves a serene, yet still flickering and almost claustrophobic soundspace that merges in with ease. The mechanical pulse on “Nonbinary Machine” flows through industrial wastelands—Aphex Twin-esque patterns are submerged into tangled braindance bliss as “Viscera” shatters erratic beatwork, shuffling videogame themes in a dense and vivid sound assembly.

As Component emits hundreds of splintered IDM slivers, tracks like “Motor Reflex” opens its machinery to limitless creative ideas, while “Automaton” closes with a culmination of all that’s transpired—fractured drums, fuzzy synths, and percussive glitch from the outer realms. Built from a smorgasbord of components, these six tracks expand and contract to form visceral electronic mayhem with very little breathing room.

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