patten in 2019 (Serious discussion)

#1

So, I was thinking about the kind of progression with patten as a whole earlier today. Psi kind of brought about a very radical change to patten as a whole; not only did it carry this incredibly dark and apocalyptic tone/feeling to it, but it also brought about some clarity in the sense of we finally saw human faces attached to people working on the music, along with names (so to speak). It got me thinking about how there seems to be specific eras or chapters in the projects life. E.g. the CDR releases are it’s happy-go-lucky beginnings, then you have GLAQJO and ESTOILE forming the maturity and growth as a whole of both D and the project and with Psi there is this reality facing sense to it.

A lot of Psi is very much hinged with reality and politics, it is sort of a mirror that takes popular sci-fi and cyberpunk material and flips it back onto the real world and shows there isn’t that much difference between the two. It’s two years old at this point, but it remains ever relevant. To help convey this message we had the assistance of A with her haunting almost deadpan vocals on multiple tracks. Personally I don’t hold Psi up as highly as some of patten’s older work (kinda), but that’s partially down to not personally being entirely into the genres and sounds that influence and form Psi’s overall feel; regardless it still stands as quite the important release on a couple of different levels.

With this in mind, and whilst also comparing it to the projects earlier works (including the CD-R releases if you’ve had a chance to hear any of it), where do you think it’ll be going next? I’d point to the recently released “RE-EDITS vol. 9” as perhaps a peek into what’s in store, but generally speaking the RE-EDITS series is separated from the usual output. With the harsh reality vibes of Psi, personally I think it could go in many different ways. It could continue the harsh vibes but take a more active “fighting back” sound rather than “gazing upon the chaos” feeling that Psi gave off. Alternately, it could end up doing a 180 and being more hopeful of the future, giving us a bit of much needed positivity with the current state of things.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts about both what I’ve said and also what you think the next release will sound like!

EDIT: I completely forgot to take Requiem EP into account when considering this. Requiem very much follows on where Psi left off, albeit it’s significantly harsher now. It’s entirely a logical progression of Psi’s sound but I’m not sure it completely hits the “fighting back” vibes, more of a “being caught up in the chaos” vibe. Psi was viewing the world from afar, Requiem gets knee deep in the action and makes sure you see every single moment of it.

#2

Oh, also as a side note: This thread can also double up as a proper discussion type thread about patten’s output in general, not just about the releases yet to come. I definitely have quite a bit to say on Psi, so maybe I’ll do a little write up a bit later. For now, I wanna hear what y’all think!

#3

I will always be partial to the 2011 - 2014 run. there’s just such an irresistible liminal quality to their pre-Psi output, every sound a chimera or mirage twisting, morphing, folding, or distending into a coalescing whole, as opposed to the very literal aesthetic of Psi itself, which is very much THIS IS THE SNARE THIS IS THE KICK THIS IS THE HIHAT THIS IS THE SYNTH

#4

There’s a reason I dubbed the Psi era stuff as the “clarity” era; one half is because suddenly the members are very front facing, we see their faces and we have names for them (vs before where we only saw D who always had his face obscured and was only ever known as just “patten” or “the dude from patten”). The other half is the jarring swing from melty dream-like psychedlia sounds of GLAQJO/ESTOILE into the harsh clean cut sound of Psi.

I’ll admit I’m very partial to that hazy psychedelic sound myself, it’s lovely especially around this time of year. But Psi definitely has it’s special place and has some pretty lush production if you listen in proper (The Opaque is a good track for that imho)

#5

I think it’s entirely possible that I haven’t given Psi a fair/careful enough examination. trappy hi-hats are just such a massive turn-off to me sometimes I can’t see past it :man_shrugging: clearly there are some very sophisticated things happening on this record.