Karen Gwyer - Bouloman EP

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  • In an interview with The Quietus last year, Karen Gwyer was asked if she'd ever taken a stab at making four-to-the-floor techno. "Yeah! Loads of times," she answered with a laugh. "And then I'm like, 'Let's just make it a bit strange.'" Gwyer has made techno a lot strange on Bouloman, her first EP for Berlin's Nous label. But just because she didn't take the obvious route to the dance floor doesn't mean she hasn't landed right at its center. Bouloman is hectic, unpredictable and delirious, but crucially, it's also propulsive. There's no shortage of murk on the record, it's just that Gwyer's clever arrangements blow right through it. On "Keisa Kizzy Kinte," high-pitched synths stumble over a knot of tightly packed notes while bass churns in the background. When a snare fills in the upbeat, that bass takes the chance to crank up the squelch and infuse the track with unexpected funkiness. The B-side steadily picks up the pace: built from an athletic drum pattern and propped up by buzzing low-end, "Brunch Music" should raise your heart rate. As it turns out, though, it's merely a warm-up for "Shit List With Kid," where gorgeously dissonant drones create the illusion that its breakneck rhythms escalate the BPM as they plow forward. It's a hell of a workout, but if you can pick out the details in the blur—a melodic swerve here, a playful drum smack there—Bouloman is as rewarding as it is demanding.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Keisa Kizzy Kinte B1 Brunch Music B2 Shit List With Kid
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