G-Man & Rob Strobe - Acrophobia EP

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  • With recent releases from producers like Dasha Rush and Orphx, you probably associate Adam X's label with throbbing darkroom techno. You're not wrong. But its first release of 2012 sounds a whole lot cheerier than usual. It's the debut SG release from G-Man (in collaboration with German Rob Strobe), and—unconventional as it may be—he's not a bad fit: the grooves here are a little looser and certainly housier than usual, but they pack just as much as power as anything else on the imprint. "Skotch" starts out innocently with particulate matter converging into shapes, as bits of metal attach themselves to the frame and sequentially endow it with some bassy oomph. When the snares come in, they have a mischievous skip, like they were stolen off some old forgotten house record. It's disorienting at first, yet it imbues this slice of dark techno with a light-hearted sense of momentum. The dissolution of house into techno is a real theme here: "Fit" throws what sounds like buoyant hand percussion underneath a charging steam engine until it gets lost in the monochrome blur of Teutonic revelry, while "Courage" deadens melody into a half-awake pulse dotted by dread chords and a skittering, slippery snare/hat pattern.
  • Tracklist
      A Skotch B1 Fit B2 Courage
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