A compilation often functions as the young label’s mission statement — a declaration of musical values intended to align artist and listener sympathies.
For UNC-based label Philosophy Major, Altered States, Vol. 1, despite a few highlights, overwhelmingly fails in this effort, indulging too frequently in drugged-out repetition to impassion anyone.
Future Flute’s contribution, “Dark Magic Pt. 2” presents a disjointed, overwhelming cacophony that very well could have been composed by playing whack-a-mole with a MIDI controller.
The record’s token dubstep track, “Heater Caliber,” is an example of the over-hyped, Skrillex-style electro-house that relies entirely too much on double-timed drops to get anyone dancing, much less thinking.
Amid the album’s disengaging inertia, however, is one stand-out.
Despite the Metallica reference, Klonteska’s “Holier than Thou” offers a supple reworking of dubstep’s otherwise tired idiom, deftly combining propulsive percussion with deep bass and rich chords.
Altered States’s ratio of success to failure illustrates precisely how difficult it is to make electronic music that moves both the mind and the body, especially where earbuds stand in for bass bins.
Altered States
Vol. 1
Dive verdict: 2 of 5 stars
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