*2022 stock* Now-legendary producer, DJ, and art director Juan Mendez arguably reset techno at least twice. Once with his surreal and Europe-by-way-of-LA '80s apocalypse culture aesthetics for Sandwell District, and again--as Silent Servant--with his “Jealous God" imprint that captured the youth-driven mutation of crossover electronics and dark parties churning in the American underground, which followed directly in the wake of his game-changing modern classic, Negative Fascination.

Mendez has evolved to more aggressive and stripped-down acid punk electro dance attacks on Silent Servant's equally vital follow-up, Shadows of Death and Desire. While many would stall after the success of a now contemporary cult classic, Mendez took his time to deliver a more raw--yet refined--brutalism in his second album.

The otherworldly guitar feedback of opener "Illusion" is violently cut short with a relentless bass sequence erasing any preconceptions of softening with time. Stereo-panned dusty snares drag along concrete and break apart with without a past or future. The percussive momentum kicks with an energetic malaise straight out of Cabaret Voltaire’s "Red Mecca,” accelerating toward another form of dance music and black psychedelia.