- New York label Sci-Fi & Fantasy might be best known for issuing a pair of singles from Janus artist Lotic. On the surface of it, this EP comes from a different world entirely. But there's less distance than you might think between the gorgeous ambience of NYC's Headlock and the confrontational collage approach explored by Lotic, his Janus crew and connected producers like Total Freedom. The place to start is "Love Obscene," a Headlock remix of Janet Jackson's "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" dedicated to Total Freedom, himself a prolific producer of edits and bootlegs. Total Freedom's edits are garish and upfront, often using apocalyptic bell chimes or grisly screams; by contrast, Headlock floats his source material in a goo of pads. But they're really just contrasting responses to the same environment. Where Total Freedom (as with Lotic's Damsel In Distress) articulates the shock induced by the web's cultural bombardment, Headlock simply dissolves himself in the torrent.
On that particular remix the dissolution felt partly complete; likewise on Headlock's 2013 debut LP, where recognisable musical gestures remained, like lumps in a semolina pudding. This EP, slipped out as a free download in November, goes all the way. The producer has described it as his "love song attempt," but unlike the Janet Jacksons of this world, it depicts love not as a contract between two people but as a diffuse energy distributed across countless online nodes. Track titles hint at the consummation of a vague, all-encompassing desire—"Hold," "Again," "All Over"—while the music itself is transparent and almost-featureless, as if conventional love songs have been vaporised and left to swirl like dust clouds. Needless to say the effect is gorgeous, even if, like much great ambient music, when it's all over you're left wondering precisely what it is you've been enjoying.
Tracklist01. Hold
02. All Over
03. Again
04. Lopsided