Andi Nixon makes music to move you. His work as Deathcount In Silicon Valley runs the gamut from gnarly sci fi-inspired head trips to more contemplative and meditative sound excursions. He pulls influence from Anthrax and Sepultura to Ozric Tentatlces and Hawkwind to Emeralds and Tangerine Dream. His electronic music is deep, heady, and a world unto itself.
In 2017 Andi released his Deathcount In Silicon Valley debut with Burning Witches Records. Hex Void was a whirlwind of dark synth and otherworldly Komische. Five years later Deathcount In Silicon Valley has returned after a time of dormancy, working thru loss, and deep contemplation. Working with new label SFI Recordings, Andi has dropped the excellent Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, a slow-churning, cosmic mind warp of a record. This is early 70s, densely constructed Komische of the highest order. The kind of heady musical trip made for deep dives into the psyche in order to do the real work: the work of self-healing.
Over seven tracks of woozy, psychedelic electronics Deathcount In Silicon Valley’s Vampyroteuthis Infernalis takes the listener on a journey. Zone out tomes, primal buzzes, and circuital hymns for sinking into the subconscious to find the answers needed. Nixon makes music the old fashioned way, through instinct and feel. Analog instruments with no computers, alone in his sanctuary for creation, Nixon puts on his cosmonaut helmet, lights some candles, and lets the blinking lights, patch cables, and natural feel guide him into the musical unknown.
Tracks like “Ocean Depth”, “Saturation Of Oxygen”, and the propulsive ” Drifting” are low key but hypnotic. They lock into masters like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Harmonia while still sounding very much the work of Andi Nixon. Deathcount’s sonic world takes those influences and inspirations and turns them into something wholly unique and very much its own trip.
There’s a growling, foreboding journey in “Vampiromorphidia” and “Vampiromorphidia – Part 2”, with its stinging synth tones and droning space drift. You can feel the shadow of both the mental and physical isolation of the last two years building to a crescendo that’s not quite release, but maybe an understanding. The epic “Descending Upon The Abyssal Zone” closes out the journey Deathcount In Silicon Valley has taken us on. Over 13-minutes of cascading synths and crystalline light that sets us in a cloud of circuital bliss.
Vampyroteuthis Infernalis is Andi Nixon waking Deathcount In Silicon Valley from a slumber of grief and healing. Finding his sea legs amongst the patches and square waves once again after dealing with the kind of heavy loss lesser souls never come back from. This is a cosmic drift into analog warmth; a sonic bath of psychedelic light and heft.
‘Vampyroteuthis Infernalis’ is available now on cassette and digital via SFI Recordings. Buy it here.
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