These days, prefixing one’s assumed identity with the ‘DJ’ initialism seems somewhat passé – after all, no-one actually uses ‘discs’ any more, and there’ll likely be a time, soon, if it isn’t here already, when the origins of the term will be a complete enigma to anyone under the age of 25. Still, in the case of DJ Stingray, the moniker of choice is wholly fitting: the robotix sound of ‘Psyops for Dummies’ – released in USB flash drive – harks back to the kind of visions of the future that were commonplace in the 80s, and come with a sting in the tail.
What Stringray delivers across the four tracks is a succession of stark, clinical electronic instrumentals. ‘The Sadist’ takes is propelled by a whip-like snare sound, and ‘Fullbodyscan’ is more of the same: tortuously monotonous beats and grinding synth bass tones. ‘The Strategy of Tension’, too, follows much the same format and utilises the same sounds, but is fractionally slower and substantially sparser, but it’s queasy and tense. Finally, ‘Disinformation’ is sparser still, yet dubbier, with a fuller bass drum sound.
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It’s not about soul, it’s about precision. Although individually the pieces are stylistically interesting, the lack of variation gets to be a grind, although I half suspect that’s the point.
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