Maelstrom / Locked Club & RLGN – Acid Avengers (EP – Tripalium Records)
Genre/Influences: Acid, IDM, Dark-Techno, Electro.
Format: Digital, Vinyl.
Background/Info: “Acid Avengers” is a split release between French producer Joan-Mael Péneau aka Maelstrom and Russian artists Locked Club plus RLGN.
Content: We first get 3 songs by Maelstrom, which are moving from Dark-Acid Electro to more minimal-driven and sophisticated IDM. The Russians move on with 2 songs revealing a surprising Acid cut mixed with vocals reminding me of the early days of Underground Hip-Hop with an icy, Eastern tune on top. The next song has something pretty hot-like accentuated by a deep, resonating bass line.
+ + + : Great and diversified split production. I like the IDM inspired “La Nuit Est A Toi” by Maelstrom, which has something intelligent and visionary. “Captain Industrial” by Locked Club & RLGN is an absolute masterpiece. It sounds like sonic osmosis between different genres and there’s a brilliant balance between Acid vibes, Rap-driven vocals and a great tune.
– – – : The diversity of the songs might be a bit confusing for some listeners.
Conclusion: I’m not often a huge fan of split releases, but this one reveals a talented and established French artist together with promising Russian artists.
Best songs: Locked Club & RLGN: “Captain Industrial”, “Kill Me” + Maelstrom: “La Nuit Est A Toi”.
Rate: 8.
Listen to “AAR021 – Maelstrom / Locked Club & RLGN – Acid Avengers 021”:
Artists: www.facebook.com/RAAR.FR /
www.facebook.com/lockedclub / www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100050507336581
Label: www.tripaliumcorp.com / www.facebook.com/tripaliumcorp
About Maelstrom, Locked Club and RLGN
Maelstrom is the alias of French producer Joan-Mael Péneau, listed on Discogs as a co-founder of the RAAR label. His discography starts with the self-released 12” “Acid Revolution #1” in 1999 and runs through releases on Lab-Rok Records, Expressillon, BNR Trax, Zone, Bromance Records and RAAR.
Locked Club is a Russian duo that performs in balaclavas. Discogs describes their music as a combination of industrial, hard techno, breakbeat, new wave acid and house, with vocal samples taken from internet memes and older songs. Their releases include “Svoboda” on Private Persons in 2018, “Irak” on Boysnoize Records in 2019 and “Russian Banya” in 2020. RLGN belongs to the same Forever Punk circle and shares the 2022 EP “Drunken Master” with the duo on Don’t Recordings.
Discogs catalogues this split as AAR021, a limited 12” released in France on 18 March 2022, mastered by 4bstr4ck3r with artwork by Pierre Bunk. Maelstrom takes the A-side with “Acid Zdoch”, “Think For Yourself” and “La Nuit Est A Toi”; Locked Club and RLGN take the B-side with “Captain Industrial” and “Kill Me”. Tripalium issued two further titles Side-Line reviewed that same season: “Pyrolatry” by Volruptus and “Tumulto” by Hexe Culto.
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