STM 174 - Modeo

Modeo is the experimental techno project of Máté Sándor, a key figure in the vibrant Hungarian industrial techno scene. He has released numerous EPs, including Purist Baptist on Audioexit Records in 2014 and Isimura on Labrynth Records, as well as the full-length album Razan’s City on Subsist Records the same year. His newest album is set to be released as a double LP in 2016, so keep an eye out for it! Modeo’s rich, layered cinematic sound is woven with asymmetric rhythms and complex audio collages, pushing the boundaries of the genre. His work is deeply inspired by two themes: the vast emptiness of space and science fiction dystopia. The latter is also evident in his involvement with the art community Technologie und das Unheimliche, which uses installation art—emphasizing sound—to explore the relationship between the individual and the state, and the condition of humanity in postmodern societies. His mix for Secret Thirteen captures these inspirations, delivering an hour of dark beats and cold atmospheres.

Secret Thirteen Mix 174 is Modeo’s meticulously compiled industrial, techno, and dark ambient soundtrack for the devastation of Earth. He drew inspiration from the Apophis EP, a collaboration between Black Rain and Shapednoise, named after the potentially dangerous asteroid Apophis 2029, and from David Jensen’s nature photography, which documents stark images of natural extremes, evoking scenes of a post-impact Earth. This selection is a brilliant representation of the current trends in industrial techno and its many forms. Appropriately, the journey begins in the otherworldly noise of Ceres, an unreleased track by Modeo, and progresses through the unforgiving sonic waves of Peder Mannerfelt’s “Acid Drop,” into the eye of the storm with seamlessly mixed tracks by Ike Yard, Dasha Rush, Emptyset, and others. Finally, through Ancestral Voices’ Medicina, we reach Earth, where the soundtrack shifts towards Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ string-filled nightmare of a track, “The Cannibals,” from the 2006 adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. After being torn apart by Trepaneringsritualen and The Body, we arrive at the wintry melancholy of Prurient’s “Christ Among The Broken Glass,” which fades away into nothingness. This is an extremely detailed piece of work, with exquisite sound dynamics and track transitions that will leave you wondering if the originals ever sounded quite like this.