Antigone - No Country For Old Men
It should come as no surprise that my affinity for Antigone appears boundless at this point. I think his adaptive style for such an intense form of dance music is a stark reminder of what's possible when you take genre as a suggestion rather than a cage. In past releases, we've seen Antigone move from the most classically rich veins of hardtechno into much more Berlin-influenced two-step and drum-and-bass tunes. This time around, the Persian finds favour with my more organic, meditative sound. Returning to TSSRCT for his second artistic flourish on the Belgian-based imprint, Antigone's sound feels tribal, shamanistic, and elevated.
Titled, No Country for Old Men (2026), this new three-tracker blends both non-fiction and fantasy into a surrealist whirlwind of a musical journey. From top to bottom, these tracks take on a truly floral and organic sound, following in the footsteps of artists like Polygonia while retaining their astral experimentalism, akin to the earlier electronica of JakoJako. Drums have a weighty layered sound more like falling debris or the stomping march of a jungle expedition. Subtle echoes bounce throughout all three pieces, adding a layer of depth and space. Antigone uses a playground. Within the vocal-rich Woodlands of 'Sounds of Silence', ghostly spirits weave through the rhythmic woody clogs. The distinct heartbeat drumming is ever-engrossing, driving and steadies the track.
Contrastingly, 'Spur of the Moment' grounds itself in reality while sharing the same fantastical space. With the former, everything sounds a little swampier without fully delving into the acidic 303 baselines used before. Antigone uses a combination of squelching background rhythms and bass that sounds like a flabby tropical leaf recoiling after catching too much water. A lot of responsibility comes with being the most energetic track on the record. Still, its energetic yet grounded sound is enigmatic, reflecting what Antigone is trying to convey on this record. It's a tribal, physical call-and-response, like kookaburras calling from tree to tree.
The glue that holds these two trucks together is 'No Country for Old Men', where obvious elements from both are combined into a cohesive whole, but there's more to it. The title track is charged with bringing these two planes of existence together, and, stunningly, it achieves that goal, though on this occasion it may have been asked to do too much. Steady pulsating rhythms or lay down like roots anchoring the track to the jungle floor, while floaty slow-motion sense blurs the lines between bleep and the ultra-amplified sounds of bursting seed pods. The track feels like it should have a time-lapse music video of a plant growing, fading to black as the stars of the night sky are emblazoned across the screen.
The duality of the No Country for Old Men record is captured and distilled into the title track. Unfortunately, doing so results in a lot less vividness than the others. The efficiency of plant life and the romanticism of the mystic are beautifully touched on. The glue need not be there; instead, another meditation could have worked to cement Antigone as the Sharan. Wanky Mystic mutterings aside, the gun produced a stunner leaning as far into hypnotic techno as he does arts electronica.
Label: TSSRCT (2026)
Antigone - No Country For Old Men
