Me, I’m Counting: MACAU EP | ★★★½ | [Moroderik Musik; Aug. 20]

The local label Moroderik Musik launched in April with a unique vinyl release by Chapel Hill’s TRIPLE X SNAXXX, the duo of vintage-modular-synth hounds Alex Maiolo and Patrick O’Neill.

If that epic, blade-running calling card didn’t shed enough neon light on the label’s purview, its name leaves nothing to doubt: Mix the driving, robotic “motorik beat” of techno-utopian krautrock bands like Neu! and the sensuous splendor of disco dad Giorgio Moroder into a decidedly 1970s flavor, then count to infinity.

The label’s second release also herds expensive synthesizers in intricate formations through infinity signs of arpeggiated bass and metronomic drums, but it complements SNAXXX’s molten organic feel with a smoother, poppier finish.

Me, I’m Counting is the project of Nick Williams. (Disclosure: Williams occasionally writes for the INDY.)

“Macau,” the title track of his four-song EP, aims to capture how it felt to ride in an air-conditioned car after stumbling feverishly through a sweltering day in a Chinese city: delirium, then relief. A sticky swarm of claps, whirs, and strobes forms a shuddering symphony until a mammoth bass finally drops a throbbing grid over it all, predictable yet effective.

Still, for home listening, 12 minutes is a daunting length, even in a genre fueled by the trancing effects of minute variations in protracted repetition.

“Wave Age,” though, distills the style to a six-minute essence: bright, dewy, danceable, and lensed with colorful effects that are well illustrated in its music video.

Williams excels in this smaller footprint; the livewire “Laska,” in particular, seems to generate shifting dynamics from within rather than embellishing a bassline. And “Pulse Minima’’ suggests that eight minutes might be Williams’s sweet spot, with its sinuous, surprising twists through flute-like timbres, triplet rhythms, and smoky harmonies.

Williams may be seeking hypnotic euphoria, but it’s his more flexible composition—less motorik, more Moroder—that infiltrates MACAU for the best. 

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