- Nathan Fake has been fairly quiet since 2009's Hard Islands, having mostly appeared as a remixer in the interim. Evidently this was in part because he was working on a new album, Steam Days, for which Iceni Strings is a preview. Its three tracks aren't Fake-by-numbers by any means, but followers of his sound will probably not be surprised either.
Although "Sense Head" works with robust, jacking drum patterns, I'd hesitate to say that it's specifically built for the dance floor. Instead, Fake creates unsteady blends of warbling, pitchbent synthesizer and pogoing, stuttering rhythms. Their perpetual, jerkily filtered flux is as engaging to follow as it is difficult to pick out individual motifs.
The hopeful, crystalline melody that swoops in at the end of the title track echoes the likes of Bochum Welt and AFX, while the rolling drum programming on "Bauxite Dream" is surprisingly tight and flowing from a producer who tends to emphasize blossoming synth progressions above everything. It bodes well for his upcoming LP, as the producer offers some loving tweaks to his signature sound.
Tracklist A Iceni Strings
B1 Sense Head
B2 Bauxite Dream