Put on a pair of studio monitors or high-fidelity headphones. "Silicon Lust V037b" opens not with a beat, but with a pressure. A sub-bass drone, filtered through what sounds like a resonant low-pass gate, creates the sensation of being inside a sealed shipping container.
0:00 - 0:45 | The Induction Phase A sole, arpeggiated sequence enters. It is metallic, reminiscent of a broken theremin or a detuned oscillator from a Soviet-era synthesizer. There is no melody in the traditional sense—only intervals of dissonant tension. Auril uses granular synthesis here; you can hear tiny bits of a female vocalist (possibly a sample of Laurie Anderson or a custom recording) being stretched into oblivion, creating a "chatter" that sits just below the conscious threshold.
0:46 - 1:30 | The Heartbeat Arrives The kick drum is not a thump; it is a thud. It is heavily saturated, side-chained to everything, but with a slow release. This is where the "Lust" comes into play. The rhythm is languid, almost sexual in its delay. Unlike the frantic 140 BPM of typical hard techno, "V037b" sits at a restless 124 BPM, but the percussion swings like a broken robot waltzing. silicon lust v037b by auril
1:31 - 3:00 | The Glitch Phase This is the track’s signature moment. The "Silicon" aspect glitches out. The arpeggiator stutters, resets, and plays a wrong note. Auril abuses buffer effects (similar to the old LiveCut VST or the Mutable Instruments Clouds module). The track seems to delete itself for two bars, leaving only reverb tails, before rushing back in with a new layer: a distorted, vocoded phrase. The phrase is barely intelligible, but Reddit audio sleuths have slowed it down by 400%. It appears to say: "Do not simulate what you cannot control."
3:01 - 5:00 | The Ascent The track doesn't "drop" so much as degrade. Auril introduces a resonant synth line that climbs the harmonic scale, creating a feeling of false euphoria. Just as a traditional track would introduce a major chord relief, "V037b" introduces a bit-crushed saw wave that locks into a harmonic minor, refusing to give the listener the satisfaction of resolve. The drums become more frantic, the compression pumps harder, and finally, everything collapses into a loop of digital feedback. Put on a pair of studio monitors or high-fidelity headphones
While widely celebrated, Silicon Lust v037b is not without critique. Some scholars argue that the piece romanticizes the commodification of desire, potentially obscuring the exploitative labor behind the data it harvests (e.g., scraped dating profiles without consent). Others contend that the heavy reliance on proprietary haptic hardware limits accessibility, contradicting the decentralization ethos it promotes.
Auril has responded to these concerns by releasing a low‑cost, 3D‑printed version of the haptic glove and by providing an opt‑out mechanism for data contributors, thereby attempting to align the work’s ethical footprint with its conceptual ambitions. 1:31 - 3:00 | The Glitch Phase This
Since its digital release via the netlabel Glitch Control in late 2023 (though some bootlegs suggest a 2022 prototype), Silicon Lust v037b has accrued a quiet but fierce following.
Critics have noted that the track’s lack of a traditional melody is its weakness. However, defenders argue that melody is irrelevant; Silicon Lust v037b is not a song to hum, but a space to inhabit.
Since its debut, Silicon Lust v037b has garnered attention across several domains:
The work’s interdisciplinary resonance demonstrates how a single artistic intervention can serve as a conceptual nexus for conversations about technology, embodiment, and affect.