On ORIGINS, Das Mörtal doesn’t chase nostalgia—he sharpens it. The Montréal-based producer’s new EP (out October 17 via Lisbon Lux Records) revisits the DNA of his project—dark synthwave, techno pressure, Italo sheen—then stress-tests it for 2025. The result is a concise, story-led set where texture does the talking and arrangement carries the emotional weight.
Opener “Minimal Chainsaw” sets the tone with serrated overtones and a kick that moves like machinery; it’s a clean break from comfort, a reintroduction by impact. The focus track, “I Just Want to Hold You (Part I),” flips the palette toward funked-up Italo and vocoder ache: a rubbery bassline, twinkling arps, and that refrain looping like a memory you can’t file away. Premiered on NOTION and paired with a video by Stacy Lee, the cut lands as late-night romance refracted through a gothic club lens—leather, fangs, strobes—but the real hook is in the mix architecture: every 8 bars earns its place, and the chorus breathes just enough before the drums tighten again.
“Part II” stretches the same emotional thread into a darker hue—less immediate, more nocturnal. “Falsche Daten,” the EP’s earlier calling card, remains the steel spine: a brutalist techno driver whose grit feels purposeful rather than postured. “Satan’s Hand” and “Evolution of Darkness” are the shadow studies—pressure, release, and negative space working like dialogue—before “…Now” exits on a futuristic glide that hints at broader horizons.
If Das Mörtal has long been read through comparisons (from synthwave heavyweights to techno outliers), ORIGINS is the rebuttal. It’s not a museum tour of influences; it’s a live feed of a producer iterating in public—leaner writing, crisper sound design, and a willingness to fold romance into the gloom. Combine that with a track record that spans Osheaga, Transmusicales, FME, MEG Festival, and tours alongside Vitalic, Perturbator, and Carpenter Brut, and the EP reads less like a detour than a mission statement: past, weaponized for the present.
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