French producer UFO95 continues to hone and sharpen his craft with A Brutalist Dystopian Society on MORD, an album that takes its inspiration from the imposing material language of Brutalist architecture, whilst also confronting brutality in its broader social and political sense as he adopts “techno’s ‘party-for-your-right-to-fight’ protest music essence, dismayed, as many people are, with “war, repression corruption and prejudice””.
Brutalist concrete monoliths once embodied utopian ambition, but now, tend to represent reminders of failed futures stark, functional, and uncompromising. UFO95 aims to distill that tension held in these structures directly into sound, aiming for something “functional, imposing and tough,” drawn to “the minimalism, the weight, and the darkness [they carry].”
A purely live artist, UFO95 fully improvised performances have earned him a residency at Berlin’s Tresor and appearances at Berghain, Berlin Atonal, Bassiani, Basement NY, and a eight-hour live jam at Stone Techno festival alongside Rodhad’s WSNWG crew. This commitment to his hardware and to the Berlin techno scene is evident in spades on the album, which captures that raw, uncompromising powerplant interior of Tresor at full swing and transposes it onto fourteen razor sharp cuts.
On Pulsation 3, UFO95 pares things back to a brutal core, opening on a thumping kick and a simple, sharp synth stab that feels tough and minimal. Below that rigid framework coils a snake pit of seething tape hiss, giving the track a constant sense of friction and unease. A low, ominous pad rolls in beneath the surface, barely announcing itself but adding a heavy, looming presence that deepens the atmosphere without softening it.
As the track unfolds, detail creeps in with measured restraint: hats flicker into place, mids arrive with a touch of echo, and a barely perceptible bleep noodles away in the background. Raw, unapologetically distorted synth work injects urgency, pushing the energy higher before sharper bleeps and rhythmic accents snap everything into focus. When the track eventually circles back to that central kick and low bleep, the effect is forceful and hypnotic. What’s most impressive is the arrangement. Minimal on paper, yet meticulously balanced, with each element given space to breathe. You barely register how many components are at play until UFO95 pulls them away, leaving the structure stark, physical, and relentlessly compelling.
‘A Brutalist Dystopian Society Part 2’ is out now via MORD. Order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Dystopie
2. Absence has shape
3. Uncall
4. Radiation
5. Resolution 2
6. Resolution 1
7. Pulsation 3
8. Pulsation 2
9. Meditation 1
10. Surface 1
11. Meditation 3
12. Fight against yourself
13. Paradoxe du silence
14. No more to say