Koster – MASC
5.19.18 by Ryan Masteller

Guys, this one’s going to be tricky. Not only is Köster’s “MASC” the soundtrack to an experimental dance piece (which I HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN), but there’s some hefty baggage being shouldered here by both the dancers and the Tallinn-based DJ (Tallinn’s in Estonia, if you needed some help with that; I had to look it up). Hypermasculinity is not a laughing matter, and violence toward women (and men) is simply unconscionable. But that’s sort of the point of the “MASC” dance performance, along with the idea that the behavior accompanying its mindset has penetrated “gay culture and homoeroticism.” These practices, normally “associated with heterosexual cis-gender men,” are here filtered through “an LGBT prism.” Also tricky is that I identify as a cis white heterosexual male, and so missing some nuance is going to be a thing that I’m simply going to have to admit to right up front, because who knows. But this cis white heterosexual male knows how to enjoy the crap out of almost any artistic endeavor, no matter the audience, no matter the perspective, and so therefore I’m all hepped up on goofballs about this thing, some parts more than others, but still. Remember, though, I can’t SEE it.

Some of “MASC” might be strange without the visual accompaniment; for example, long stretches of “Hatching” simply beg for visual stimulus, especially in the stark contrast to hits like “Club 1” and “Club 2,” obvious slabs of strobey techno crafted with the titular location in mind. (That’s “the club,” just in case you missed it.) Still, “Hatching” bears connotative relation to the idea of emergence, of issuing forth from a previous iteration of what one was previously, its relative silence and primordial gathering of its constituent parts a formative soundscape ripe for interpretive movement. Is that emergence into an LGBT community of some sort? Does “the club” represent the predatory ideas of hypermasculinity, a toxic pitfall for the newly curious hatchling? “The Hook Up” and “Rituals” suggest in their stasis (i.e., relative rhythm-less states) that there’s a period of adjustment, and this is where the cavalier sexuality surely takes its toll on the protagonist. “Hypermasc” ends the cycle with more center-cut techno, but to what end? To overcoming violence? To perpetuating the cycle?

We can only turn to an unseen performance for answers we may never have.

But we will always have this tape to keep the conversation going.

That is, of course, if I don’t drop it in the sink while I’m washing dishes or erase it while I casually stroll past the industrial magnet at the demolition yard where I work.

Anyhoo, delight yourself in “MASC” from the fine folks at Crash Symbols. Remind yourself while listening that men of all stripes are awful. Take this cue to be better somehow.