In the series of EPs that Berumen released last year, he explored textured that did not deviate from a steady rhythmic line. In his new EP there is more freedom of movement, better sound design and everything feels more expansive and emotionally complex.

Last year, drummer Jorge Berumen released a series of EPs in which he documented his process of deconstructing his main instrument. The result of these exercises fell into an uncertain point between industrial, free improvisation and experimentation with different methods to alter the drums timbre. The experience was interesting, although at times the pieces felt like unpolished sketches - something the artist himself confirmed, stating that several tracks were intended as backing beats for collaborative sessions. 

Time passed and, fortunately, Berumen never abandoned his goal of achieving an idiosyncratic sound that could abstraction and rhythm, but approaching the latter from different perspectives and quite far from what an ordinary drumming album could give us. The effort paid off, as Acusmático - the drummer's most recent release - fuses arrhythmic pulses accompanied by faint synthetic textures and completely mutilated field recordings, creating a biomechanical chimera. This theme -fusing the flesh with the mechanical- is quite present in Berumen's work; however, no matter how obtuse, Acusmático feels less machinic.

The previous EPs sounded more aggressive thanks to a bitcrush filter by which the drums were processed, and it also placed more emphasis on repetition. The tracks gave the impression of representing cyborgs slaves to their chimerical condition; in contrast, Acusmático is the sound of an android recognizing and exploring itself for the first time. There is more freedom of movement, the rhythms are not cyclical and although the sound palette is (apparently) not that varied, everything feels more expansive and emotionally complex. 

There are moments of high intensity that are achieved with the bare minimum, without the need to resort to traditional dynamics such as cymbal abuse or overcompensating drum fills. Berumen plays with restraint, letting everything progress organically. The first two tracks contrast with each other, but there is an aesthetic coherence that unites them. The album progresses from the subdued to the explosive (the electronic textures are increasingly gaining presence, even bordering on noise); from the dislocated to the articulate (the rhythms go from having no direction, to being more steady); and in the end, the sound of the drums becomes more and more recognizable and although the album's culmination is abrupt, the conceptual arc feels complete. 

The production, like the sound design, has enough detail to appreciate and this stands out when we take into account that there are field recordings hidden within the mix. The coupling is such that there are even moments when Acusmático gives the impression of being an ambient work where everything is created with the drums. Berumen, in his eternal quest to find the ghost in the shell, has created an album that is difficult to define, as it takes from different styles but cohesively fuses them creating something new, something alive.