Nochexxx aka CHXFX – ‘Spacecide’ [Feral Tapes]

You got to love the way Nochexxx works. By the time everyone picked up on his beats releases he’d moved left of house and funky. When the heads caught up with him there (as a mexican skeleton bandit it should be noted) he’d already moved on to torturing his production gear in to unheard sounds and coming up with the most interesting work to date. The guy’s an absolute don on the scene, and I have a vision of him hanging out in the west country strapping lit dynamite to a Studer and an MPC60 just to see if it makes the sounds he wants. It’d be great to rock up to the Nochexxx mansions unannounced one day and find out it’s true.

His CHXFX (always in capitals?) alias first appeared on a split tape release last year, sharing billing duties with PLKZFX alias of Ekoplekz, and was followed up recently with another limited cassette titled The Unhaptic Synthesiser, also via the chaps as Further Records. Dropping last week, we got something new from CHXFX on Feral Tapes, 18 tracks of on-edge and blissed out electronic exploration appropriately titled Spacecide.

With this release Nochexxx taps in to that weird and wonderful area of BBC Radipophonics previously owned by Daphne Oram and Brian Hodgson, increasingly leaning towards the other worldy sci-fi of Wendy Carlos. VHS ripped b-roll sci-fi quotes accentuate this, as does the beatless nature of the tracks, most of which come under two minutes.

It might not be the easiest listen but it’s a memorable one. Definitely something you want to own on physical, though limited to 75 yellow cassettes they might be gone by the time you read this. Check the stream of the tracks below, available from the Feral Tapes bandcamp page. Big ups Nochexxx / CHXFX each and every way, can’t wait to see what he’s got on next.

If you’re up for a laugh I suggest wandering over to the Nochexxx online home and checking the takedown letter issued by some evil finance company that blatantly has been using his name for a much darker purpose: http://www.nochexxx.com/#/takedown/4572396939

And as one final item on the Nochexxx agenda take a look at this clip for ‘Orange Orbit’ from 2009. One of the most insane music videos I’ve ever seen.