If ᵍᵃᶫᵉᶰ ᵗᶦᵖᵗᵒᶰ’s really from Columbus, Ohio, then they’re definitely from the vibrant, heavily touched-up version of the city that downtowncolumbus.com uses to promote their digital newsletter. A panacea for Midwestern winter gloom, the post-PC Music producer’s latest mix of original tracks evokes the artificially intelligent bustle of a metropolis rendered in Google Earth.
Grip and rip the globe with your cursor-hand: “queer energy” spins its mechatronic world like a top. ᵗᶦᵖᵗᵒᶰ’s cacophonous arrangements and syncopated kick drums whirl in suspension, showering their surrounding in shaved chiptune detrius. Each time the dust settles, the remaining landscape reveals a new tool of the producer’s compositional kit. Around 4:45, for instance, ᵗᶦᵖᵗᵒᶰ rips a page from GFOTY’s playbook, firing vocal chops at a kinetic sculpture of grinding, clanking percussion. Somewhere in the empty white space — between ratchety gear-shifts and snares — exists a danceable rhythm: let the unconscious mind do the dancing for you.
The cut starting at 9:00 is the mix’s strongest section, spelling out its thesis in balloon-squeaks and firecracker blasts. Here is where the rave in your Id begins to come to a close. The endorphins begin to file out of the revamped warehouse, bumming smokes on the loading dock and leaning into the wall to hear the last crackles of percussion phase in and outside. Your body’s warmth and energy seeps into the surrounding world through your fingertips — their exit paths are almost visible.