The artwork for Patrick Sexx's debut on Alpha Pup, The Shadow That Took Shape, nears an illustrative representation of the album's genesis. A secluded log cabin conjures a dark passenger, one that gains definitive shape the more the cabin inhabitant pushes into creative discovery. That shadow figure lurking over the domicile, cigarette and 40oz in hand, is the conjuring of Patrick Sexx's experimental electronic compositions.
Recorded in seclusion in the backwoods of Northern California, Patrick Sexx's debut makes a subdued entrance via Carpenter-esque synth constructions that mix with ambient atmospheres. The entrance expresses a respectfulness to the surroundings, as though Patrick Sexx does not want to announce his presence in the woods, but peacefully coexist. Three tracks in, on “Tao”, Patrick Sexx disturbs the owls with a filthy, flappy bass partially built from low-pitched vocals repeating the mantric Eastern philosophy. The juxtaposition of Miami bass stylings with taoism alters the expectation of reclusive music. Patrick Sexx did not escape to obtain oneness with the land, but to disturb the woods. The Shadow That Took Shape, as it descends into dark terrain of ambience and bass thumps, plays out like a re-imagining of the Evil Dead script. Patrick Sixx is Bruce Campbell with collection of synthesizers and the evil that awaits is at his mercy. He's the necromancer and the snake charmer, soothing the mysticism in the trees and making it his pet.
Patrick Sexx's The Shadow That Took Shape is out March 11 on Alpha Pup.
