Khate is a lady from Virginia who likes to produce truly absorbing ambient music interspersed with mesmerizing sound design. Here she introduces her soundworld with a lovingly packaged LP on SMTG called 'Pareidolia'. From the off it's like listening to an old Biosphere album remixed by Machinefabriek, eerie pulses, ominous phasing and quiet aquatic burbles with those digital crumpling sounds going on we like so much, Later on there's a space hoover vacuuming up a lazerquest troop stuck in a metallic jungle, lovely tribal incantations are overlaid with these strange juddering blades of sound. 'Autumn' is a deliciously creepy dark ambient techno number with this ace little moody keyboard refrain - may be nods to SAW II by th' Twin - before it dissolves into more laptop scrunch & drifting, ghostly basslines, haunted klaxons and sleepy ambient melancholia. There's a really organic, rhythmic feel to this record with some simply wonderful sound applications. It all sounds like a real labour of love - 8 tracks produced in 4-5 years means an incredibly perfectionist mind is at work here, you can hear the feminine touch, some bits remind us of the hugely underrated Portable on Pole's ~scape records but with a darker outlook. Mastered by James Plotkin, i'm loving this LP, housed in a wicket screen printed sleeve.
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What their label says...
Pareidolia is the first vinyl collection from Khate, Virginia's one woman orchestra of odd instruments and an artist who embraces the significance of random sound. Each sound is absorbed, enhanced by all the sounds that follow, until the listener is transported someplace supernatural. Circuit bent electronics, synths, and other devices buzz, throb, and fizzle in a fog of found sound. You become trapped in rhythmic hypnosis, dancing in the dark corners of a forgotten place with memories that aren't your own. Limited edition of 300 copies housed in silkscreened covers. Mastered by James Plotkin.
