Joseph Morris opened the doors on his shiny new label Entertainment Systems earlier this year and has already stockpiled a nice little collection, even selling out a few titles including this one he recorded himself under the “Dagir Du” guise. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Strauss, you asshole. Here you are writing about a tape that came out in March, is completely sold out, and what, you expect us to care? First, yes, I do expect you to care, and second, yes, I am mortified for how long it’s taken me to sit down at the old typewriter to scribble some notes here (along with a case full of others I am working though). But words are deserved, so let’s get to it. And look, I found a copy for you, so quite your whining. Morris’ expansive music is immediately enrapturing, pulling the listener in with a warm, spacious ambience while keeping things well within a creepy nega-zone that feels very subtly evil. This push/pull feel is something pretty easy to get swept up in, and a nice stage for the detail work Morris so clearly puts into his music to shine through. Slowly seismic waves of bass carry delicate synth melodies along a forward trajectory, and jittery glitch inflections twinkle in the distance with the entire mix wrapped up in a warm hum. The overall feel here is very space-documentary, drifting melodies through what feels like deep, infinite voids with subtle analog synth flourishes that flash like solar flares off a passing star along the way. But it’s those little extras that will make your arm hairs stand on end — the scraping sounds of a metal file, the incessant tapping and clicking sounds, and then of course those submerged intelligible whispers… it’s all there to haunt the listener through what might otherwise be the work of another run-of-the-mill synth-scaper.
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