Gore Tech - "Futurphobia"

Artist: Gore Tech
Album: Futurphobia
Year: 2015
Label: Ad Noiseam
Genre: Dubstep, Breakcore, DNB
Website:  www.adnoiseam.net















Basics:
This is my first encounter with Ad Noiseam’s recent self-described “Deathstep” producer Gore Tech. This album is a mixture of dnb, breakcore, and dubstep that feels like being in the middle of a futuristic war.

Stuff:
The album opens with “>Run (William Gibson)” which obviously piques my interest immediately. It’s basically a 2 minute ambient thing with a sample from a Gibson book – can’t really go wrong there. After the intro, the album kicks into “The Zerofinity Event” which is your standard halftime dnb banger. The sound is dark & gritty and I really like the use of sci-fi & machinery sound effects to give this some atmosphere. The next track is “Optical Hybrid” which further exemplifies what I am assuming “deathstep” is – a dark, gritty, futuristic hybrid of drum and bass and dubstep. This is a head-nodder with good groove and variety. “The Ghost Particle” is another hard, driving track – it’s a good mixture of heaviness, dub and strange darkened atmospheres. Evol Intent had this shit on lock like 10+ years ago, but I mean, this is still cool. “The Plague of Zion” is a mix of breakcore and that rasta shit which I hate, but I guess it’s here if that’s something you want to hear. “Dubwar” is cool and heavy; it reminds me of an old video game, for example like Metal Gear on NES, where you’re in the jungle with heavy artillery shooting people. “Hex Spectrum” is full of really annoying sounds so I skip that one. “Organica” is another good one, albeit something of an interlude. It’s got a cinematic robotics machine shop feel. It builds up over its 4 minute duration and nearly flows right into the next track “Mechanica” which is a collab with Hecq. Unsurprisingly, this track features the most exciting sound design on the record – it carries the aforementioned machine shop atmosphere but with some great intricate percussion. Unfortunately, the 2nd half of this track is this overly extended winding down period, and it feels like they missed an opportunity to amp up the action into a meaningful crescendo. The final track is a remix of Machinecode, whose album I liked. Basically this remix along with its predecessor “In Exilium” is if you take that fucking Chappie robot and make him cripwalk to some futuristic rap made by post-apocalyptic slum denizen who heard a NAS record. He should’ve thrown a cut up ridiculous hip hop acapella over this. Basically, “hard shit” for drunk white boys who wanna to turn their hat sideways and act hard. What I’m saying is just fuckin get drunk and it’s pretty good.

Overall: 
This is a hard record to rate. There are some great sounds here as well as some missed opportunities. To be honest, a lot of this darkstep derived stuff (well, any dnb really) sounds the same to me at this point, so if you want to listen to some Audio or Dylan or Panacea or whatever than you might as well put this on because, why not? I like the futuristic influence for sure, but a lot of it isn't really my style either. The gritty production is a double-edged sword; it gives it something of a “dark” edge but also makes it feel pretty dated, for better or worse. If you like Ad Noiseam stuff and breakcore give it a shot, turn your hat sideways, and drink a 40.