Our love for L.I.E.S. should be apparent at this point, but just in case we haven’t fully transmitted it to you here’s another attempt. This would usually be the part where we’d give you a little background on the artist, but as you’d expect this is Torn Hawk’s first release. All we know for certain is that his name is Luke Wyatt and he’s a Brooklyn video artist. Doing what he does best, L.I.E.S. founder Ron Morelli has unearthed another unknown producer specializing in dusty, tape fuzz-riddled (no it’s not your needle) electronics. In the spirit of many recent L.I.E.S. releases, these tracks are not likely to be played at peak time on some European dancefloor. Instead Wyatt has put his talents on the guitar to good use, forging a sound rooted in 80s beach rock stylings as much as the drum machine funk of electro. The result is that his debut sits in neither camp comfortably.

Washed in harsh synths and upfront effects, the title track “Tarifa” is cool in every sense. Light guitar chords are strummed over and over in a completely hypnotic fashion. Did we mention just how slow the track and the record in general is? Sitting somewhere around 80 bpms, this is true cruising music – now if only you had a portable record player your car. After that ride, “A Piece of the Storm” delves into much darker territory. From the get-go there’s a growling low-end with the faintest trace of melody from what might be an electric piano. Either way the contrast works, especially in the context of such a short track; it can’t be more than three minutes long. “Shock Tape” sounds much more focused than the previous two. Showing more restraint, it resembles a practice session backed by a rough beat and improvised guitar chords. Wyatt definitely knows his way around noise, throughout this track in particular he finds ways to use it in creative and surprisingly melodic ways, once again bigging up the New York noise crew. In a tie for our favorite track, the other being “Tarifa,” is “Mark of the Hound.” It’s the most rock-centric of the four; lo-fi guitar riffs and chords are not just at the center of the track they are the track. He piles on different octaves of the same notes until it’s a dirty orchestra of sorts. The drum programming on this track is so minimal and distorted you’d think each wire was plugged in halfway, and to top it off he just dangled microphones over the speakers to record it. All of this combines to make a slab of experimental rock that gives us a mental image of a California beach filled with 80s babes (even though the video is much darker than that).

Stream: Torn Hawk – Tarifa (L.I.E.S. 011.5)

Here’s a rare cut of music that only L.I.E.S. could get away with releasing. It’s unorthodox and questionable in quality, but none of that matters as long as people enjoy it; this is one of those releases that would have actually made sense to put on a cassette. We hope this isn’t a one-off project and that Torn Hawk releases more music in the future. We’ll be patiently waiting.