- There's a track on Hex's self-titled EP called "Foreign Tongue," and another called "Exotica." What's most striking about the London duo's debut, though, is how familiar it sounds. The scarred beatscapes, bristling with angular sound design and barbed-wire textures, are certainly impressive. But this sort of dance-music-ruin porn, which sifts through the rubble left when you detonate existing styles in the controlled environment of a DAW, has been approached from many angles lately. Hex don't find a new one, instead deftly combining others to form their glowering, greyscale tracks.
The way "Exotica"'s kicks thunder away in subzero temperatures recalls the icy UK reboots of Mumdance and Logos. "Open Source" and "Ruin Value" suggest Rabit's apocalyptic grime: the former through its distended bass stabs, the latter with a beat made out of foley-like explosions. On "Foreign Tongue," hip-hop is subjected to the same catastrophic process, its booming 808 bassline scarred by jets of noise. Hex's death-defying DSP feats often recall Arca, particularly on "Miasma," where vocal samples blurt out half-melodies and the beats scud violently across the grid. Vocals, in fact, are the EP's most recognisable element—albeit granulated and chopped into sharp, uneven mosaics. Hex shy away from bold melodies, which might be why their virtuosic tracks don't stay in the memory once the explosions have died away.
TracklistA1 Open Source
A2 Foreign Tongue
B1 Ruin Value
B2 Exotica
B3 Miasma