Time Makes Nothing Happen

M. Geddes Gengras originally self-issued the home-recorded Time Makes Nothing Happen as a digital album in May of 2020, accompanied by the casual explanation playing with sound playing with rhythms just playing playing playing. Hausu Mountain reissued the album six months later, with a bonus track appended. Unlike his previous release for the label, 2019s expansive, organic-sounding drone work I Am the Last of That Green and Warm-Hued World, Time Makes Nothing Happen is a vibrant, kinetic set of experimental techno tracks, filled with twitchy pulsations covered in lush, forest-like textures. While hes released several records and tapes of noisy analog techno as Personable, this album seems farther away from industrial and minimal techno than that project. Tracks like Mimic mix glitchy, grubby tones with insistent beat patterns, yet theres a sense of calmness enveloping it all and preventing it from getting too aggressive. Lapidus includes bursts of more banging, 909-like beats folded into an intricate sequence of jumpy rhythms and clattering percussion. Time Makes Nothing Happen consists almost entirely of rainfall-like pattering that seems to wash the tracks kick drum away. Pieces like Ring Drop and Funky Pressure feature choppy rhythmic patterns that nearly sound like theyre being played on tablas, while others appear to get swept away by the constant whirl of ricocheting pings and swoops. Bend (Edit) has a hypnotic techno thump and a more club-friendly progression, and feels far more stripped-down than the rest of the tracks, but closer listening reveals some clever polyrhythmic trickery. Driven by a restless exploratory spirit, Gengras uncovers something new during nearly every moment of the album, which indeed consists of some of his most playful work. ~ Paul Simpson