THE ALGORITHM

Compiler Optimization Techniques SElf/atonal An epic adventure in digital djent.

Ametal guitarist first and foremost, Frenchman Rémi Gallego began experimenting with DIY recording and 80s-style software instruments in the late 00s, before the Algorithm eventually became a live beast. Those tempted to dismiss the complex instrumental blend of bleep, bludgeon and rhythmic wizardry as a cheap trick will now have witnessed a multi-album evolution: from the smashed Gameboy arpeggios of early demo collection Critical Error, through to 2014’s Octopus4, which seemed to directly lie at the crossroads of djent and EDM, and then 2016’s Brute Force, which sounded like Survive discovering blastbeats.

It takes a certain love of the niche, the heavy and the retro synth setting to dig into this stuff in depth, but once immersed, it is a heady trip through Tron-land. So, where next? Well, while Brute Force sounded reflective of a time when it was widely agreed the world was descending into darkness, fourth album Compiler Optimization Techniques is reflective of an era when the world does not widely agree on anything at all.

There’s a clear sense that these ideas are more untapped at the start and more honed at the end than previous efforts, meaning the five tracks here are gigantic in their scale, yet seamless in their convergences. We are far from ‘mash-up’ territory, instead the songs on COT are closer to symphonies in terms of their arrangements – bizarre and grandiose as that claim may seem in this filthily distorted, futurist context. The 11.43 Cluster, for example, lays down a heavy gauntlet, mutating from Kavinsky-style cyber-punk to Iron Maiden gallop into an oddly uplifting jungle centrepiece – and that’s only half of it. There’s also a boss fight 8-bit maelstrom and a final djent beating.

Fragmentation initially seems to offer some much-needed respite, opening out into a drifting, spacious electronic arrangement, augmented by a slower Stranger Things-style heart beating kick drum, but this sense of security evaporates as it morphs into something altogether more menacing – all while finding a convincing rhythmic link between hip-hop and stoner metal as an electronic kick-snare gives way to a looming wall of riffs.

Gallego has made a record of rug-pulling, unbalancing smarts that demands concentration. Whether or not you see this as a flaw is up to you, but Compiler Optimization Techniques is certainly not dinner party music. Think of it instead as a Ready Player One-esque compilation of cultural reference, both disorientating and awe-inspiring. If you’re a listener after a challenge, this might well be it.

RUG-PULLING SMARTS THAT DEMAND CONCENTRATION.