X-men... welcome to DIE!!!

Hexagon Trail

Double EP release- Broken Dialogue /Castlevanian Hunger

On a dark and stormy night the residents of Salford can be seen lighting their torches and picking up their pitchforks as lightning cracks all around pulsing electric into the tense atmosphere. In the distance buzzes and shrieks can be heard from the building in which a mad scientist performs his experiments into the dark realms of electronic music. This can only herald one thing. The upcoming release of Dark Electronic act Hexagon Trail's double EP: Broken Dialogue and Castlevanian Hunger. Although they Share similar themes and are being released at the same time, packaged as a double EP, they do exist as separate musical entities and should be approached as such.

With a glance over the four track titles, those in the know may notice that Broken Dialogue takes it’s song names from famously humorous miss translations in classic games. The first track Welcome To Die makes good on this, opening the EP with a sample taken from the X-Men game its song title took inspiration from. Erratic glitched out beats make their way into the song along with low stomach churning sub-woofer bass tones. Filled with human pain, echoing screeched vocals give the sound emotion whilst still feeling scarily alien. A stumbling off balance beat leads through haunting dark ambient In following track I AM ERROR. Electronic noises crackle and gurgle as the faint command of “kill” begins to make a presence towards the middle of the track and slowly winds down again carrying on the foreboding tone of the EP. Conglaturation!!! You’re Winner! Is the highlight of the EP. It’s building jangly beat builds a lot of tension. Drawing on elements of synthwave the song feels reminiscent of 80s anime soundtracks eventually building into a disconcerting chiptune cacophony and eventually breaking way for a jarring jolt of pure noise. The EP ends on an eerie ethereal note as an incredibly simplistic beat is paired with howling ambient noises in All Your Base Are Belong To Us making for an unsettling finish. Broken Dialogue is not easy listening, but it never tries to be. Hexagon Trail wants to challenge his listener and this EP is both challenging and unique. Unfortunately a lack of cohesion in sound in a few sections of the EP makes for particularly uncomfortable listening.

7/10

Sister EP, Castlevania Hunger doesn’t suffer from the same issue with cohesion in sound. The sole track,The Morning Sun Has Vanquished The Horrible Night, is twenty two minute long epic that flows through different musical ideas. The opening ambient sounds of dank wet cavern begin the  journey that takes us through various musical ideas that draw on inspirations ranging from dungeon synth, ambient and harsh noise. Thick layers of atmosphere throughout and repeated drum beats create the motifs that hold each section together. In the second half of the track an abrasive klaxon like beat creates a warning for the arrival of the tracks highlight. A buzzing jolt of harsh noise accompanies Hexagon trails best and most terrifying vocal performance to date. A performance filled with aggression as well as pain. Ominous bell tolls slowly fade the track out with a tone that is as atmospheric as the track started making the song feel like a complete journey. Still as challenging a listen throughout, Castlevanian Hunger however feels like a slightly more accomplished musical work than it’s partnered EP. Each musical idea flows seamlessly to the next whilst still making for a dark and disturbing journey of sound.

8/10

It’s clear that Hexagon Trail is a very personal music project. Frenchie, the man behind the project, puts a lot of his own personality into this music. It can often feel like a love letter to the darker side of electronic music, whilst his love for computer games and horror films also shines through. Yet in this there is still lots of room for what feels like his own unique experimentations with these sounds. From these two EPs you get a real sense of the dark and moody world he is trying to create with his music.

FFO: Autechre, Aphex Twin, Prurient, Pharmakon, Fuck Buttons

Broken Dialogue and Castlevanian Hunger are available directly from Hexagon Trail from the 30th of June. Available separately in digital format or packaged together as a physical CD.