Navy Warship;

Though Kid 606 became the most well-known figure making home-computer-recorded avant-garde and experimental techno in America in the late '90s, Dmitri Fergadis (aka Phthalocyanine) was one of many similar artists doing the same. On his first self-released album, Navy Warship, the Irvine, CA, native created an hour's worth of clattering, chaotic, and weirdly beautiful songs that certainly showed an obvious debt to the likes of Aphex Twin and µ-Ziq, but weren't without their own individual charm and intrigue. To be sure, Fergadis has a similar way around cryptic song titles — thus the opening "Jax 57 or Jist BGIV" and "Liph ; 3A," among others. Meanwhile, the contrast between theoretically calmer melodies and distorted, mechanistic rhythms also creates echoes, but the results are perfectly enjoyable on their own, as the bemusingly titled chaos of "Fer U 2," which could easily have come out of the Flying Saucer Attack/Third Eye Foundation circle of bands, proves. Other examples include sweet if slightly buried flute tones set against heavily treated, static-laden beats, or the comparatively straight-up techno on "Block," though it's still reminiscent of Aphex Twin's "Didgeridoo" in its compressed build. Where Fergadis has more of an individual voice coming through is in his use of silence and space to create a weird, spy-movie-at-midnight mood. "Navy ; 3," with its slightly echoed hisses and sudden pauses, sets up a tension that first a soft keyboard then a clattering rhythm break begins to twist and undermine as it hurtles toward a fairly frenetic climax. Then there are the skittering rhythms that begin "Eliditt," eventually leading into a distant, three-note melody swirling far back in the mix even as the beats start to get more squelchy and weird as they go, or the initial heartbeat pitter-patter hits and how they contrast with more martial drum sounds on "..."