Namesis - Rave Is Dead EP (Soma)

Shadowy techno meets electronic body music on Namesis’s Rave Is Dead EP, the Russian producer’s debut for Glasgow’s Soma label

There’s an early scene in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) where the characters are travelling into the Zone on a railway car and the sound effects gradually become the soundtrack. The metal against metal of the vehicle moving along the rails is abstracted to the point where discordant rhythms start to emerge. A sudden shift from sepia cinematography to lush landscape greens marks their arrival, which also signals an end to the hypnotic, future facing almost-techno. Something about the industrial throb, found sounds and pandemic production of Namesis’s Rave Is Dead evokes that sequence from the post-apocalyptic Stalker, although these tracks would be just as at home as a shared experience in a club environment.

The digital EP marks the debut of Russian producer Namesis on legendary Glasgow label Soma. Indeed, the perfect venue to hear Namesis loud and with a crowd would’ve been label bosses Slam’s old stomping grounds The Arches, an industrial zone where the mind could run free – sadly stripped of club status long before Covid-19. Dancefloor memories are all we have at the moment though, so let’s just go with it. Opening track “Blade Runner” would be a prime Arches candidate. Made in collaboration with Corvad, it’s as inviting as it is harsh, with clanking steel-beam-constructed percussion, waves of gloomy synths and foreboding spoken words pulled from the darkest edges of rave. Imagine shadowy electro with Throbbing Gristle and Purple Plejade together at the helm.

Elsewhere, “Lies Around” deals in goth-like acid-drenched breaks, while the rave stabs of “Whispers in the Darkness” prove that the EP’s title points to the future rather than laments the past. “Rave Is Dead” itself allows a little more introspection to creep in, although remains powered by a broken-techno engine. However the purest thematic expression of Nameis’s music on display here might just be “Call Me Out”, which leans hard into EBM and hits subversive industrial pop notes along the way, without sacrificing any of the edge of its surroundings.