- Imaginary Forces is Anthoney J Hart's most prolific alias. He's a UK musician who grew up in the '90s on a typical diet of raves and drum & bass, but the music he makes now is much darker and gnarlier. As Imaginary Forces, he paints a picture of a greyed-out world where dance music is listless, rusted and drowned in noise.
One of Hart's best records is called Shift Work, which is a clue towards what he's aiming for: he uses the repetition of dance music to mirror the grind of blue-collar life in his native UK. His latest Imaginary Forces record, And What?, lands on Halcyon Veil, the new label from Rabit.
The A-side is given over to three tracks attacking broken beats with static and screech. Each of them offers a twist, though the best is the title track, which goes through the motions of a weary lockstep march towards nothing in particular. Those patterns are drunken and scrambled on the other two, and their disorienting effect is amplified by a constant high-pitched whine. It's another device that feels mind-numbing, like Hart wants to wear you into submission.
The more substantial "Make Ends Meet" trades the screech for booming bass and breathing room, hobbling along for seven minutes in a wretchedly staggered gait. There's also a "London Something" version of it that comes out of leftfield—some kind of ragga jungle-footwork hybrid with floating blobs of low-end and spastic kicks. It's an invigorating way to end an EP that can suck the life out of you in just 15 minutes. Brief and somewhat single-minded, And What? might not be the most adventurous Imaginary Forces record, but it's one of the most intense.
トラックリストA1 And What?
A2 Chat 'Bout?
A3 High Rise
B1 Make Ends Meet
B2 Make Ends Meet (London Something Version)