- Featuring two members of contemporary jazz outfit Portico Quartet alongside producer Will Ward, Circle Traps have always come across as dance music outsiders. Their music to date has tackled familiar electronic idioms—melancholic post-dubstep, Four Tet-ish electronica—with fresh-faced enthusiasm, if at times a dearth of originality. Early on, what set them apart was their materials: the trio's 2011 debut stitched live sax and drums into rich, volatile sonic tapestries. Over time, however, the band have shed their USP in favour of a purely synthetic palette. Their latest shows that the move has only been partially successful.
As with its predecessors, Machine City feels like a response to recent currents in electronic music. This is retro-futuristic techno whose scuffed surfaces and muggy atmospheres evoke Detroit in a manner similar to the music of Actress (or perhaps his more straitlaced protege, Moiré). In a couple of places, the similarities are overwhelming. "Portent" and "You Are" both trade in subtly wonked percussion and faded technoid grandeur. The trio have a keen ear for melody, but they don't do quite enough to make this territory their own.
Elsewhere things get more unusual. "Machine City" marries cosseted synth work a la Mount Kimbie with a death-march techno beat. The machine-gun salvos of claps and snares are particularly satisfying, though it's such an odd hybrid that you might find yourself more puzzled than impressed. "Turning" is the furthest from techno, and the closest to past Circle Traps work. The diced acapella, tearful chords and acres of reverb aren't exactly radical, but they make for the most striking and successful track here. Circle Traps work best when they march to their own beat.
Tracklist01. Portent
02. You Are
03. Machine City
04. What It Holds
05. Turning