Italian producer Federico Ponti releases his debut long player under the Pont alias via Valencia-based Subsist Records; an imprint that has quietly amassed over 280 releases since its inception, championing underground electronic and techno music from producers across the globe alongside its more experimentally inclined sublabel Faith Disciplines. Plus, it has some of the best artwork we’ve seen for its releases.
A label with that kind of catalogue depth doesn't arrive at a debut long player lightly, and Existence Gateway feels like a significant statement of trust in an artist whose work has clearly earned it.
As you know, we love ourselves a bit of space techno, and Pont doesn't fail to deliver as he plots our route through the constellations of his sonic universe. From Behind is first to the plate; dense, otherworldly pads, digital howls, and pinging synth plucks setting our adventure into the inky black in motion, a sense of foreboding firmly instilled from the off.
The thick, beatless atmosphere begins to clear as we enter hyperdrive among control-console chirps and the forward locomotion of Sustaining an Unwanted Memory's kick drums. Not long before we discover They Can See Us; a track whose sinuous alien transmissions evoke the observations of a life force as yet unknown.
We transcend the fabric of the universe as End of Physical Body draws our being in granular form through multiple folds in space-time. Glimpses of interdimensional chatter and destructed radio frequency haunt the mix as the track's minimal percussion pulls us further into the void.
Tangible form returns with Mercury Orb, whose metallic liquid mass sweeps and swirls over and into itself like the molten warp-core of our spacecraft; or perhaps a sentient being of indeterminate origin. Pulses, dubby bell synths, and warping whooshes battle for dominance on the orb's outer surface.
Metacognition's sonar pings make the omnipresent conscious instantly aware of our location between realities, its whispers permeating the abyss. We then find ourselves suddenly In Reality. Was all that preceded the fever dream of a cryogenically stored sleeper? The familiarity of our craft returns as percussion propels us through cosmic storms of undulating bass vibration.
No Time furthers our intrepid exploration; digital degradation and static cutting through the production before the digital droplets and sci-fi string swells of Molecular Teleport pull us away once more.
Fake It keeps things considerably more minimal; plasma zaps shooting across our field of vision amidst broken comms vying to break through. You Are Not perhaps offers an inclination as to why those comms failed, suggesting we no longer exist at all; synths bubble and rise around us as static whip-cracks cut through the vacuum.
We forge forward on the propulsive percussion and mysterious, echoey bullfrog synth signalling of Racky, speeding toward our interstellar destination. Not before Leaf goes fully organic; a fractal forest complete with digital crickets, atavistic drums, and teleporting synths for company.
Centering carries us toward the journey's end; loopy hypno-drums and siren synths rushing us past cosmic entities at light speed.
Finally, we reach our destination. The Existence Gateway. What lies beyond is entirely up to you; all we know is that it represents the next phase of your existence. You'll find the answer somewhere among the insistent percussion, synth drones, and stardust.
What a journey. Embark now on Bandcamp.
