Death After Life, THUG ENTRANCER’s debut for Software Recording Co. is a deliberately realized collection of dance experimentation and hybridized electronic music with narrow stylistic precedents. It’s also a gripping, somber tide formed from the gravitational pull of an artist’s amble through unknown turfs. RYAN MCRYHEW’s footing as a creative lynchpin in the Denver DIY electronic music scene shuffled to the other world and beat of the South side of Chicago in 2011. McRyhew's new home allowed him secluded time and space to create in-depth and unconditional music as Thug Entrancer. The move also provided McRyhew direct access to Chicago's dance music history and the groundbreaking works being crafted in bedrooms and blasted on speakers throughout his neighborhood. A summation of varied approaches to electronic music, Thug Entrancer’s multiverse is not dissimilar to other Software artists (Slava and Huerco S., for example). McRyhew draws influence from pioneering electronic and experimental composers who placed an emphasis on extended development and technique, alongside early analog dance producers who went all-out and all-in with little more than a TR-808 in their arsenal. Death After Life is comprised of eight chapters drawn from the album title, each numbered I through VIII. These portions underscore a pitch-dark motif thread throughout the album's fifty minutes. While Death After Life reframes elements of Chicago Juke and house in long-form design, the end result one in which a subtler horizon is discovered, trumping more palatable musical codes and dissuading us from treating electronic music, or any genre-stamped style matter, with rote attention.
