SSLEEPERHOLD continues Holodeck Records’ exploration of minimal, man-merges-with-machine, analog synth composition. José Cota, man behind the hardware, relocated to Austin from Los Angeles after the dissolution of his previous group Medio Mutante. In the album’s title track, a menacing bass pulse surges over skittering irregular drums, lacerated by the sounds of a screeching blade and mechanical wailing. There are two dueling synth personalities here: one joyfully evil, one shrill, brought together by the abrasive scraping of a torture implement. The throbbing bass invites us to revel in its sadistic delights. The bass line is multiplex: convulsive, mechanical, and texturally dense. Suddenly the bass and drums cut out, exposing a mechanical death rattle drone. The intoxicating bass tone is gone; we’re left to witness the last decrepit moments of a dying synth. Stream and buy the LP on wax here.