Plasma Sources marks its 5th release with Cortical’s debut EP, ‘Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes’. Pulling from both the extreme fringes of experimental music and the minimalistic tendencies of the UK bass continuum, the duo’s much-awaited first release acts as the locus point between dance floor sensibility and sonic exploration in its most immersive, visceral sense.
Cortical are world builders first and foremost. With backgrounds rooted as much in the visual arts as audio, the duo’s live AV show has already garnered critical acclaim after standout performances at Sónar and Lunchmeat. Coupling this with their list of past collaborators - which includes the likes of Holly Herndon, Arca and Skrillex - and it becomes easy to see why there’s so much hype around Cortical right now. Indeed, this EP is the culmination of months of building excitement amongst those in the know, as fragments of raw footage captured from Cortical’s shows begin to amass on social media.
‘Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes’ itself feels like the auditory equivalent of a fragmentary existence forming, fragmenting and reforming again. Noise and distortion act as integral threads throughout the EP, but on the first track, ‘Telúrica’, they take centre stage. Brittle percussive calls give way to a thick wall of bass-laden, cinematic viscerality which hits the listener almost as hard as the ensuing rhythmic carnage which erupts halfway through.
Mortar, immediately fires away into more rhythmic madness, as elements of dubstep, metal and grime coalesce into blasted kick patterns which sound like the contractions of an eldritch machine’s digestive tract. Noise-tainted bass tones kick in, tearing in and out of reality and slowly
dominating the environment as Mortar progresses into deeper territory.
Up next, Shiny Surgery provides a respite, with electro-tinged drippings of lasers and wet gloops lifting the listener into a more sanitised and lighter space than its predecessors. Cortical’s extreme musical influences are still at play here with their signature eroded bass weight and splintered percussion on display, but in a more restrained sense. As the halfway point comes in, so too does the most introspective section of Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes, as cinematic floating pads de-sterilise the space.
Finishing things up is the namesake of the EP and arguably the most anthemic listen of the release. On Wretched Patterns And Terrible Mistakes, demented vocal chants call out across a disintegrating claustrophobic space, before grime kicks and fragmented breakbeat loops explode into existence, demanding full dance floor attention. This is pure-peak time energy, although still entirely in line with Cortical’s immersive approach to world-building and sonic exploration.
Wretched Patterns and Terrible Mistakes operates equally as an enclosed, hermetic exploration of Cortical’s fragmented, low-end focused sonic landscapes and equally as an assortment of dangerously effective club tracks guaranteed to turn heads.
