- With releases on Dutch labels like Panzerkreuz and Shipwrec, The Netherlands' Ekman is part of a new generation of producers in thrall to his country's gnarled West Coast sound. As with his colleague Gesloten Cirkel, Ekman distinguishes himself by not only imitating the punkish sonics of his forebears, but also stamping them with his own character. Ekman's best tracks are his most aggressive, in which a handful of synth lines and heavily saturated drums are wielded like blunt instruments. On his latest, for the UAE-based Bedouin records, the results are ugly but effective, though the hit-rate isn't perfect.
There is little to techno burner "Quantitative Matter And Motion" beyond its bassline, a red-raw one-note throb. As a tribute to the endless joys of a good distortion effect, it's highly satisfying; "The Consciousness Of An Anthropic Mechanism" and "Implausible Inconsistency System" are less so. Things improve when Ekman switches up the percussion. "I Am Not A Turing Machine - You Are" and "Gödelian Argument" are both superlative Dutch electro, recalling the ragged hardware workouts of West Coast veterans like Electronome. The former's machinegun arp seems hellbent on pummelling dancers into submission; the latter is menacing but graceful, like a heavyweight boxer with dangerously quick feet.
TracklistA1 Quantitative Matter And Motion
A2 Implausible Inconsistency System
B1 I Am Not A Turing Machine, You Are
B2 The Consciousness Of An Anthropic Mechanism
B3 Gödelian Argument