Without a doubt, OniTECH sounds as if it – in cassette form – was found clutched in the fingers of a well-dressed corpse that washes ashore some ashen beach on the east coast.  This release is a dark and disturbing thread of truth that hints at a bigger mystery.  Perhaps it is a reason for the death of the businessman I imagine gripping this small package.  But maybe it is just the acknowledgement that, yes, the world is indeed and dark and deadly unforgiving one and that Cyberpunk, with its low life via high tech vibes, is STILL where this society is headed. 

Either way, low.poly.exception wants you to know that there is poison in the network.  And you should never drink the water.  Study the words.  Understand their meaning.  But do not drink the water.

Whatever appeal there is in this truth-altering world of virtual reality headsets, the sounds emanating from low.poly.exception’s excellent new release, OniTECH, work in unison to create a hypnotic flow that suggests, at least to me, that – in this cold sea of corporate career criminals – it is up to the common man to find and tug on all the loose threads as an unraveling is in order.

The dystopian push and pull of low.poly.exception’s latest release, OniTECH, is a poignant one that, as made clear by the recent actions of the FCC regarding Net Neutrality, makes this Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based electronic musician’s work timely and so damn alarming.  There is cold and calculating rawness to the entrancing vibes of tracks like “Simulacra” and the album’s opaque opener, “OniTECH” where the corrupt world is first introduced.   

There is something erroneous in the land created by low.poly.exception’s electronic music.  It is by design, of course, as the artist continues to explore the dark weavings of corporate corruptions.  The artist has managed to massage this theme with radical and emotionally-rich electronic sweeps in each of his four releases.  But, with the entirety of OniTECH there is a bare warning buried in the instrumental mixes.  It is a dire one concerning the future depicted here.

And, thanks to the eradication of Net Neutrality, we find the world presented in OniTECH becoming our own.  It has passed from fiction.  As uplifting as it is in the sequencing of the release, I highly doubt the electro-refrain of “Summoning Sequences” will be heard in this new reality anytime soon.  But I can dream.  And, OniTECH allows – with its reverence to the energy of pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto (who’s “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” has yet to be emotionally topped) – for that dreaming.

And the impact of “N/A” with its passionate use of keys and heavy bottoms suggests an operatic rise of humanity in this progressive plain of existence.  I hope such reclaiming can happen.  Echoed by “Blackout” with its percussion-soaked strands, OniTECH presents a world at conflict with itself on all levels.  The cinematic world building here in each of these electronic songs feels all too real. 

Don’t let the thrilling tempo changes in “Bujo”, the album’s fourth (and trippiest) track, misguide you.  There is no safe place to hide when powerful corporations withhold information as their tiny hands cup the balls of a government that markets lies to its people, keeping them poor and in the dark.  Truthfully, all the loose threads in low.poly.exception’s latest electronic chronicle can actually be tied into a focused rage against the ascendency of a modern Gilded Age.  And there's no denying that that is exactly what is happening around us.

Max Headroom approved fictional universes rarely feel this real.  OniTECH is a modern masterpiece of cement and synthesizers.