Art has the habit of always being one step ahead of life. Let’s take Goole’s Deep Dream: It looks quite impressive and will probably be the lifesaver for boring, outdated profile pics. And still, it doesn’t do much else than what’s been happening in music when Vaporwave arrived: It picks out anything looking like some kind of structure from the internet’s infinite depths or from one’s own sample library and plants it onto even bigger, relatively recognizable structures. Done. Hence, it’s easy to think that James Whipple must be one of those notorious archive salesmen in meta-modus. Which he is. But then again, he’s also part of the Janus-Crew that tries to counter Berlin’s dictate of Berghain-techno and Emo-house with their very own idea of clubbing and partying. Therefore, we have Whipple a.k.a. M.E.S.H. sit there between post-modern theory and queer cultural practices, bringing together what doesn’t (or didn’t) belong together. Like chamber music and trance. So far, so common, considering all the fantastic blossoms having derived from “archive fever” until now. And still, what distinguishes M.E.S.H.’s approach from others are his complex track structures which neither lazily stumble around all over the place nor repeat overused formulas. The same way that »Piteous Gate«’s exquisite sound design comes across as both alien and well-known, his beats (varying in tempo until they sometimes break wide open) are giving us enough clues. They’re easy to find, those strange moments between dancability and the smell of sweat, characterizing the Janus-nights. But there are also bizarre listening experiences, of which Janus is trying to get to the heart, as many other producers are – although most of them aren’t half as successful with this approach as M.E.S.H. is with »Piteous Gate«.
Piteous Gate
