On first listen I was nearly ready to just write this album off as a mid to late period Autechre clone with some BOC style analog sounds added in as an attempt to get some more kick out of an old horse. Thankfully further listens showed that there is indeed more to this release than it just being another production heavy IDM record. After all there's so many of those around that we don't really need another one. While Mormo wears his Autechre influence firmly stamped on his sleeve in glowing neon, he does add his own feel into the mix. Especially when it comes to the melodies. There's something about the slippery way Mormo does melodies that you just can't seem to grasp onto them. The moment you think you have what he's doing in the palm of your hand he'll suddenly throw you a curve-ball like a series of out of key notes or a complete direction change. It's like chasing someone down a maze of tunnels, just as you've nearly caught up to them they dive down a side street you didn't see and you almost have to start again. But thankfully it's an enjoyable chase and not a frustrating one. When it comes the the rhythm and general sound you can't escape away from that Confield feel with a bit of "Chiastic Slide" in there to add some stability. Mormo undoubtedly does it well though, he is clearly adept at the art of sonic manipulation and microscopic rhythms but as good as it is, you can't help feeling from the rhythmic side that you have heard it all before. However he has a lovely command of grainy ambiences and sweet almost uncontrolled basses. I enjoyed this album the most when I stopped analyzing it and just started listening to it. Letting it flow over me and not trying to grasp a melody or a style. As I said above, the melodies try to escape away from you but I feel that this is intentional as if you're not meant to get the melodies and are supposed to take every individual little change by itself, as your unconscious mind does when it simply floats over you. The other thing you get from this as well when you just listen is you almost start to feel some of the artists origins coming through to you. As if the record has somehow managed to capture some of the Greek sunshine in-between the notes and ambiences. All in all Wasting 500 Sounds is a very well executed album with expression that you can allow yourself to disappear into. However the fact that it feels very derivative at first may put some listeners off if they're unwilling to put the effort in.

Das griechische Label hat es sich wohl mit diesem Album zum Ziel gesetzt, die Welt der zerbröselten Beats und melodisch verklärten Soundeffekte, für die z.B. Rephlex einmal stand, nicht einfach so aufzugeben, sondern mit einem Monster an guter Laune und Vielseitigkeit in Perfektion wieder aufleben zu lassen. Glitch, eigentlich eine gute Erfindung. Und so spielerisch und ausgelassen definitiv immer noch etwas, das einen um den Verstand bringen kann. Mich jedenfalls. Und das nicht nur, weil es technisch so funky ist.

A new star has risen in IDM territory. Papergoose Records already released his debut EP entitled A mouth full of small barks, but now it's time for Low Impedance Recordings to continue this musical career of Tomasz Kaye with a lovely glitch album. The broken rhythms and tiny sound particles have been thrown in the right order, due to which rhythmic structures appear with a stubborn character. Just great!

Wasting 500 Sounds by Mormo (Holland-based Tomasz Kaye) offers 50 minutes of razor-sharp glitch, splintered noises, and fractured rhythms in the grand Merck tradition. Calling to mind artists like Fünkstorung and Machine Drum, tracks like “I Only Want” and “Prumptone” weave skeletal arcade melodies, bass throbs, broken funk beats, and writhing showers of noise into three-minute vignettes. Intermittent ambient episodes and galaxial soundscapes (“Gumbler”) add variety though also slow the album's momentum a bit too much when the balance shifts too heavily in their favour (“Ming,” “Crybaby Owl”). Kaye's clearly a solid practitioner of the electronic beatphonics genre but, over the course of the album, one starts to wish he'd focus his talents more on tightly-focused machine-funk like “Inland Chime” and “Ginsob” and less on loose-limbed soundscaping sprawl. It's not 500 sounds that are wasted by Mormo but rather the opportunity to make the strongest impression possible.