- Ian McDonnell's IDM leanings have long been apparent. Like the early masters of the form, The Dubliner's duo Lakker has a tendency to flit between different subspecies of techno, treating each with an ear for adventurous sound design, finicky detail and occasionally poignant melody. In his solo work as Eomac, which is often more abrasive and melodic, the influence is even more evident (the title of his Trilogy Tapes EP Hither, Pappy is a play on Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy"). The Workout EP finds McDonnell working under a new alias, EeOo, and for yet another a new label, Unknown To The Unknown. His source material is slightly different, too: most of these tracks take early '90s rave as their starting points. His methodology, however, remains the same: in each case he abstracts and intensifies these familiar signifiers into fiddly and faintly absurd new shapes.
"Battery Baby" is noxious peaktime material, its gooey, Mentasm-like synths oozing over a boisterous techno beat. "Calc" is less steady on its feet, and while its thin rave chords are a delight, a choppy arrangement often causes momentum to sag. "We Are All The Same" is a not-entirely-necessary moment of maudlin repose. All is redeemed, however, by the title track, in which those now-familiar rave-synth curlicues are layered and thickened into pungent sheets of sound.
TracklistA1 Battery Baby
A2 We Are All The Same
B1 Calc
B2 Workout