The most recent album on the list is Janus associate M.E.S.H.'s Piteous Gate, and it was hard to know exactly where to feature it given that it will take some time for listeners to process given the density and complexity of its composition. One thing is for sure though - it is up there with the most progressive electronic albums released in 2015, and it could well be a landmark release in terms of the directions that club music's weirder artists may take in future. Effectively, as with the Djwwww and Sentinel mix, M.E.S.H. is interested in the era of information overload. This release is an expressionistic attempt to reflect the impact that too much time spent browsing the internet's archival systems has upon a person's mind. However, where the aforementioned mixes create collages of samples acquired elsewhere, M.E.S.H. instead build up Piteous Gate from scratch. It is undoubtedly stronger and more dystopian for it. The album is like a journey into a futuristic cyberspace that cannot help but look back at the past that it references constantly. The title track creaks under the strain of the material poured into it, snarling effects and a persistent stabbing synth causing a migraine in the machine. Optimate is reminiscent of Janus associate Lotic, a disruptive club beat and Arca-esque textures concurrently inspiring motion and revulsion. Thorium slows things down, a beat tripping over itself while screeching and dripping electronic effects roll around the mix. If the title track was the mechanical migraine, Thorium is its nightmarish sleep. More subtle and delicate textures are found on The Black Pill, Jester's Visage and interlude-like Kritikal & X. Renaissance and Medieval-era instrumentation surreally pans over the soundscape, completely obliterating any temporal consistency that may have been established in the record's early moments. "Who am I? Where are we? What year is it? Am I looking forward into the past?" The jester, playing these out-of-place instruments, simply sneers in response. Epithet is an itchy, industrialised monster that fuses nostalgic chimes with a persistent hammering beat. It is the confusion that follows from these temporal schisms. The two closing tracks, Methy Imbi and Azov Seepage, are texturally deeper than the others, drawing on bass-y sounds and more propulsive beats. Finally, as the listener emerges from the atemporal organic-mechanic nightmare of the first two-thirds of the album, the club becomes a place of respite. In a world deprived of logic, comprehension or consistency, there is only one escape: through dance. A fusion of sound art, avant-garde noise and club sounds, Piteous Gate is an experience like no other.
