The man behind the electronic artist
Ital -- Brooklyn-based producer
Daniel Martin-McCormick -- has never been a one-genre man, nor has he conformed to a stereotype.
McCormick has pretty much left no stone unturned throughout his career with the synth pop
Sex Worker project and dance-punk band
Mi Ami, but it's perhaps the dark and raw aesthetics from his hardcore punk days in
Black Eyes that bleed into this release, Endgame. Even
Martin-McCormick's work under the
Ital moniker has developed and changed since he started, those first releases nodding toward abstract house and making dance music for casual listening rather than a club setting. This effort is moody and abstract yet completely danceable, inspired by music from minimalist composers and experiments with psychedelic drugs; you can almost hear that the two have had a big part to play, mixed with the familiar slightly disjointed D.I.Y.
Ital sound with a new techno sheen. The album was created entirely on hardware synths and drum machines, which gives the album a certain live performance feel; you can hear the Berlin techno influences drifting in and out, sounding as if it has been recorded in an abandoned warehouse. There are intricate details that make listening to the album pleasurable in its entirety, with tweaks of effects, swirls of hi-hats, and automated parts that drift in and out, and brilliant additional production from go-to engineer
Rashad Becker. It's hard to pick a finest track as they all deserve praise, having been constructed with much detail and care, but the epically intense "White II" and "Whispers in the Dark" are good starting points. The development from Dream On and Hive Mind have been encouraging, and Endgame is his darkest, most coherent release to date -- and arguably his best. ~ James Pearce