New York producer duo Default User shared their debut EP Rotation Demon, an industrial whirlwind rooted in past experience while maintaining a decidedly futuristic sound. Default User, consisting of Aria and 5thPlanet, weld techno, trance, ambient, noise, and experimental electronica into a genre-fluid sonic journey. Evocative of artists such as John 00 Fleming, Floating Points, Dave Angel, and DJ Stingray, Default User has crafted an immersive listening experience equally apt for headphones and the dance floor.
Default User first met in 2018, bonding over shared loves of techno, late-night bar hopping, and New York’s experimental DIY communities. After a few years working independently, their collaborative efforts evolved organically, and absorbed influences from ambient music, trance, electro, classic rock, and the rawness of the local noise scene. Rotation Demon is the apex of that partnership – so far, anyway – synthesizing all of these worlds into a cohesive sonic journey.
The genesis of Rotation Demon occurred in the backrooms of New York; Aria and 5thPlanet would go on long nighttime excursions through New York’s bygone industrial spaces. These environments molded the cold, alienating sonic environment Rotation Demon lives in. The duo eventually discovered an old piano, whose rotting exterior and haunting resonances formed the spine of the EP. They recorded on the piano, and those recordings evolved into the haunting yet intimate soundscape of Rotation Demon.
Opener “Bad Gateway” sees Default User channeling their bedroom producer days in the early 2010s, with fractured club rhythms evoking their nostalgia. The duo then crash-lands on the mysterious “Paradise Planet,” where they discover a euphoric group of ravers. This track’s beat and ethereal synths create a chilling yet infectious atmosphere sure to make any listener want to dance along the ravers on Paradise Planet. On “Rubber Moses” (so named in reference to infamous New York urban planner Robert Moses), Default User crafts a hostile atmosphere in homage to the harsh architecture that shaped Rotation Demon.
The six-minute track “Xhemicals” finds the duo descending through the urban abyss and into the cosmos, during which they tunnel through a pulsar that irreversibly alters their consciousness. The EP’s title track follows, in which Default User reach a heightened state of awareness, and confront the duality of meaning and emptiness in what once felt like home. In the middle of such a texturally harsh EP, “Rotation Demon” feels like a release, with buoyant synths being propelled forward by infectious percussion. At over nine minutes long, the title track is a journey in and of itself. Closer “Amnesia” is a lush and vast soundscape that hardly provides any closure, leaving listeners with an ambiguous resolution baked in emotional residue.
Rotation Demon is a promising effort for Aria and 5thPlanet, whose years of friendship and collaboration have manifested into a compelling and dense debut EP. Default User builds a vast, industrial sonic world and takes listeners on a journey through it. No matter how pessimistic the journey may be, Default User gives its listeners plenty of catharsis – and plenty of vibrant, danceable tracks – to chew on along the way.
