Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder's second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and "wonky disco" into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our Age of Escalation: Tick Tick Tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond "cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb."From the first coiled cybernetic groove of opener "Contact," the album's spatial dynamics are disorienting and asymmetrical, alternately cold and sensual, opiated and claustrophobic. But, throughout, "rhythm is the default, the bedrock, the building block - even the melodies are rhythmic." Across 40-plus years of electronic musicianship, Mallinder's sense of timing and tempo has honed into a rare tier of mastery, limber and fluid but knotted with strange frictions. Shades of Detroit technoid industrial ("ringdropp," "Shock To The Body") crossfade into no wavy punk-funk ("Guernica Gallery," "Galaxy," "The Trial"), bad trip IDM ("Wasteland"), and jittery vapor house ("Hush"), at the threshold of modes both familiar and foreign.Lyrically the record is equally evasive, rich with allusions and associative linguistics, surveying liquid notions of societal noise, ecological ruin, art world pretension, and the trials of daily life. But the lack of fixed meaning remains Mallinder's main muse: "Music should draw you in; lyrics should make you think. Most interpretation is misinterpretation." This is music of countdowns and comedowns, fleeting pleasures and opaque futures, observing the great decline while dancing on it's ashes. Flux is deathless and forever; the rest, illusion: "I will be a constant figure / Flickering a moving picture / Turning in your head forever / Split apart but held together."
Release date:
July 15, 2022
Label:
Install our app to receive notifications when new upcoming releases are added.

Recommended equipment and accessories
-
Pro-Ject Phono Box DC Pre-Amp
Compact, high-performance phono preamplifier for both MM and MC cartridges, delivering a clean, detailed signal with minimal noise.
-
Nagaoka MP-110H Cartridge
Features a high-quality elliptical stylus that provides excellent tracking and minimizes distortion, delivering a detailed sound reproduction with an output voltage of 5.0 mV
-
Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge
Features an elliptical stylus that accurately tracks the grooves of vinyl records, delivering a rich, detailed sound with an output voltage of 5.5 mV
-
Technics SL-1500C Turntable
Features a direct-drive motor, a high-precision tonearm, and a premium MM cartridge, delivering exceptional sound quality
-
Cartridges - Top Picks
A selection of turnatble cartridges that provide great performance and sound quality
Featured Upcoming Vinyl
-
Between The Buried And Me The Blue Nowhere [4xLP]
Inside Out Music
September 12, 2025 -
Kokoroko Tuff Times Never Last
Brownswood Recordings
July 11, 2025 -
Ethel Cain Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You [2xLP]
Amigo Records, LLC - AWAL
August 8, 2025 -
R.J.F. Cleaning Out the Empty Administration Building
Dais
August 15, 2025 -
Miles Kane Sunlight In The Shadows (Blue Skies)
Easy Eye Sound
October 17, 2025 -
La Dispute No One Was Driving the Car (White/Red/Green) [2xLP]
Epitaph
September 5, 2025 -
Coil vs Elph Born Again Pagan (Extended; 30Th Anniversary) [3xLP]
Infinite Fog
July 11, 2025 -
Incite Savage New Times
Reigning Phoenix Music America, LLC
August 15, 2025 -
Billie Marten Dog Eared
Fiction Records
July 18, 2025 -
DJ Haram Beside Myself (Fern Green)
Hyperdub Records
July 18, 2025 -
RUSS RUSS / WILD (Orange) [2xLP]
199282716966
July 4, 2025 -
KAROL G Tropicoqueta (Tropical Blue) [2xLP]
Bichota Records/Interscope
September 26, 2025 -
Maruja Pain To Power
Sony International Network
September 12, 2025 -
Folk Bitch Trio Now Would Be a Good Time
Jagjaguwar
July 25, 2025