A sonic cylinder, which is a fusion of new sounds, acoustic experiments, feedback. Trip hop, new wave, illbient ...

Cocaine is associated primarily with weekend hedonism. But there are also those who want Saturday night fever to last a whole week. It is well known how such sequences end. Despite this, there are many people willing to abuse this noble drug, which were used by Sigmund Freud and Witkacy. Although coca degenerates more often than stimulates creativity, the leader of Different State - Marek Marchoff - transformed his difficult experiences with it into a really specific piece of music. But by no means light, easy and pleasant. It is in a way obvious in the context of earlier DS albums, because the group's recordings were always kept in darker shades. On "More Than Music" we hear all the characteristic determinants of the band's style: heavy, post-industrial beats straight from Scorn's albums, dark ambient colors and raw, yet refined ornaments. But unlike previous productions, this one accentuates the space more than the rhythm. Though its density exudes an atmosphere of claustrophobic delirium. It's actually more than music, it's a confession.
Michał Nierobisz onet.pl / fluid

In the 90s, some industrial artists broke away from the ghetto they had created thanks to the discovery of new electronics. This process has produced the most interesting results for those performers who have used new means of expression without completely denying their heritage. This group includes the Different State duo, which managed to combine the dark vapors of prepared experiments with new-sounding rhythmic ideas in their work.
The album "More Than Music", although supposedly inspired by Mark Marchoff's narcotic breakouts, was constructed extremely logically and precisely. The pieces on it contain elements of various aesthetics from two eras - the 90s and 80s. These are, on the one hand, hip-hop beats with a heavy and tarry sound ("My Haven"), dubbed basses ("Natural Philosophy") and ambient passages ("Forces Of Light And Those Of The Darkness"), and on the other - new wave guitar parts ("Everything Is Here"), industrial strokes of cacophonous noise ("Natural Philosophy"), electroacoustic preparations ("Noirth The Snow Collector") or free jazz journeys ("My House Just Burned Down"). All this, neatly combined, creates a convincing whole with a suggestive sound.
There is darkness and light in this music. If we treat it as a sincere confession, it becomes known as a moving testimony. It is fitting to wish Marchoff that he would manage to emerge from darkness into light. After all, it is always closer than we think.
_{Paweł Gzyl gaz-eta.vivo.pl}

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