Dharma

"Flesh" C36

Skrot Up

Genre: Satanic booty anthems

Austin, TX

January 2010

Pretty messy stuff from this one-man band, which merges drum machines and hard, analog synths with echoed vocals that alternate between spoken and yelled. At times, it's a flat-out caustic brew -- sort of a mutant eighties no-wave affair that merges a French synth-wave sound (as on 2007's BIPPP compilation) with a modern sense of depravity akin to the AIDS Wolf ilk. Nowhere is this more apparent than on maudlin "Zombie Eyes," which submerges a somehow iconic keyboard loop in a simmering cauldron of punchy beats, severely modified vocals and electronic bleeping. It's hardly the most listenable affair, but it sounds curiously like the sort of warped 'dance' music one might hear at a nightclub situated in the inner folds of the Earth's core. The fun continues on for the rest of Flesh's entirety, awash in dense n' dirty beats and more reverb than y'all can shake a stick at. Now while I can dig the atmosphere and aesthetic employed on Flesh, I should remark that Dharma is not the sort of act I see myself turning to casually. It has its purpose as a gnarled mood-setter, and as such should be reserved for only the most fouled-up, cracked and buttons-missing boombox you can get your claws on.

dharma's myspace

Michael Tau

[Vitals: 6 tracks, ltd. to 100 copies, distributed by the label, released 2009]