Broken intensity emerges from the PAN horizon as we welcome a new LP of material by James Hoff into the world. Blaster is the first bit of properly released sounds we’ve heard from the New York resident since his previous PAN issue, a collage of riot sounds issued as How Wheeling Feels When the Ground Walks Away. Hoff continues this fascination with disruption and power in his latest work.

For Blaster‘s composition, Hoff infected his 808 with the eponymous virus, using the mutated sounds as his building blocks. These seven variations are presented on the A-Side and offer an alternate language for electronic music. Familiar sounds and rhythms are rendered dissimilar, creating an alien aurality that resembles our normality. “Scratch” occupies the entire B-Side, a 15 minute track that contains the primary, pre-virus source material and is meant to act as a scratch track for DJs, thus opening the door wide for further manipulations.

Hoff’s brave move on Blaster is courageous in its weakness; powerless in the face of digital advancement, he seems more interested in artificial disruption and its sonic possibilities. A fine record, PAN’s best since that immense Tricoli LP; available for purchase here, stream “Erblast” below.