Swirling layers of slowly washing pads, chirps of warbling electronic manifestations. This is the latest record from the Disharmony side project Oxyd and it has been a curious journey getting here. From the ominously dark debut on Polymorph, 'Deep Core' through the fantastical abyss of their collaboration with Sumad and then off into the land of organic borderline ethno techno, Oxyd are the colorful counterpart to Disharmony's dour, acrid grind. I am told that "Liveforms" is indeed a live record and even though it is beautifully composed there's a rough, ragged edge to what's on it that makes me wonder what a live show from this pair would be like. I can hear elements of all their releases merging seamlessly into new creations through the alchemy Ryby and Sauron perform so readily.The drifting solitary notes on a placid ocean of sound yet beneath a malevolent heart enviously lies in wait to rise up and consume all that it sees. Much of what is on here begins with an almost optimistic tone but is soon plunged into a decimated land replete with relics, remnants and achingly splendid reminders of how the medium of audio can be made to do things it was not intended for. You see, Oxyd have put out no mere stop gap release to coast on, for all intents and purposes 'Liveforms' is a new album even though some of what you hear will be familiar, it won't be where you expect it to come from. This is a pair of musicians who are doing the unthinkable: they're mixing and mutilating what they've done improvisationaly until it becomes something of a very different nature. They even sneak into their own set and make a couple of appearances as Disharmony. The slowly pounding beats are pushed back behind wailing walls of disturbed synthetic experiments with the results being incredibly vivid bursts of psychological lightning.There's a lot of revelation in what I hear, the finely honed instincts of master technicians manipulating the emotional response of their listeners. Alien vistas of unknown origin, vast and nameless which sit in silent observance of the stars. Bound down by the conventions of time itself passing, we are witness to their disdain towards us... we for who's lifetimes are nothing but the blink of an eye in the ever expanding and limitless universe. The cold reptilian stare of destiny makes us look away, lower our heads and look for the light switch because on some level we know our place in the order of things. No matter how arrogant our species is, we are temporal beings at best. The elements which shaped us and brought us forth will have no compunction in snuffing our briefly flickering flame out.Plunged into the luminous dreams of machines, here we become one with 'Liveforms' and I begin to wonder who serves whom... a conductor and it's obliging puppets. Just lie back and drift, you will be found and taken to the place beyond your most lurid imaginings, to the plane of existential discord where time simply stops and all around you are the living, breathing cells of consciousness itself pulling you this way and that. The rip curls and eddy's elegantly presenting as though torn from the silken skin of unseen shadowy lifeforms who have been given license to reveal themselves for as long as this release plays out.

Oxyd "Liveforms" CDIt's always a great pleasure to review album "Made in Slovakia" that is somehow related to ambient genre. Yes, of course both protagonists of Oxyd (and Disharmony), Lord Sauron and Ryby, always venture into other styles like industrial, electro, dark ambient or IDM, but why not to give a try to this richly colorful sonic adventure melting broader spectrum of synthetic atmozones, noises and rhythms. Yes, don't expect here any type of droning or slow-motion ambience to glide with. This album, featuring recordings of live performances in 2005, is loaded with ever-changing and cascading high-tech passages and movements, heading from mysteriously obscure terrains through futuristic industrial factories to mesmerizing vast outer spaces. "Liveforms" open the journey with fragile, mechanized effects that are masterfully fused with active hypnotic grooves and carefully backed by euphoric atmospheres. Man, this title track is a huge one, a true masterpiece in my ears!!! The first part of "Dead Souls" moves into by far darker, cinematic territories peppered with femme choirs and manufacture-like sonic outbursts, evoking a purely futuristically sounding environment that almost unrecognized overlaps also into the next composition, "Propulsion". But soon it transfers into much more noisier and heavier, beat-infected industrialized area. All the tension is gone when the second part of "Dead Souls" enters the stage, but that might be just the silence before the storm. Yes, this composition soon turns into shorter, more disturbing percussive part with femme voice samples that interplay with another deeply immersing futuristic zones. "Voices In Me" is the first of the two tracks where Oxyd meets Disharmony. This composition again bridges various styles where synthetic rhythms are united with darker atmospheres, kind of electro-trance-industrial escapade with few monk chants thrown in. Third and fourth parts of "Dead Souls" are colored with various femme choirs, assorted voice samples and all wrapped in misty atmosfears of otherworldly or fantastic machineries. "Emphatic Clone" is the second piece on which Oxyd meets Disharmony and it kicks right away in your face with high-tech crystalline beats and extraterrestrial voices, stunningly energetic!!! Closing two tracks, "Moonlight" and "Aura", quickly dive with cinematic atmospheres enriched by sacred chants into darkly apocalyptic abyssal depths. "Liveforms", released in collaboration with US label Signifier, is vividly sculpted sonic chamaeleon transporting the listener into many spectacularly adventurous and mysterious sites. Yes, it's not a secret here, I am the guy who likes his music much more droning, atmospheric, without larger doses of industrialized or dark ambient toppings. However, "Liveforms" album will undoubtedly please all connoisseurs of dark-electro-industrial as well as all followers of Aliens Production label. Nice work, guys!!!Richard Gürtler (Feb 19, 2012, Bratislava, Slovakia)