- If there's one thing techno and ambient music have in common, it's a sense of when to press harder on the pedal—when to go faster, when to let things sprawl and when to wrap them up. No matter what form he's working in, M. Geddes Gengras has a knack for sensing the right moment to pull the air out of a track, leaving it spindly and bare, or when to bring the kick drum in and push things forward. It's simple stuff, really—flicking a switch, turning a knob—but doing it well isn't easy. In Gengras' hands, such basic manoeuvres are always effective and often inspired.
The LA-based musician is probably better known for his ambient explorations and collaborations with Sun Araw and Akron/Family than for the energetic techno he makes as Personable. New Lines might change that. Consisting of four tracks, the album highlights how limited terms like "raw," "analog" and "organic" can be. New Lines is all of those things, to varying degrees, but despite a core unpredictability, it's quite polished. The sounds are full-bodied, the percussion is usually crisp and detailed, the melodies always shifting and developing. This is a high fidelity record that maintains all the nervous energy of a one-take jam.
New Lines was made primarily with Gengras's modular synth setup. The opening and closing tracks both stretch over ten minutes, allowing the full range of Gengras's skills to emerge. The opener, "Bushi," is a real tease, twisting every which way before the hi-hats lock down a rhythm and the whole track starts to bounce. Every layer is in flux until the moment Gengras has been patiently building to finally arrives, at which point it all makes perfect kinetic sense, if only for a little while. It's that rare kind of techno record that feels like it's being spun out in front of you as you listen, never railroading down a set path but inviting digression, instability and constant subtle development. New Lines is relatively short, with all four tracks wrapped up in a little over half an hour, but it surprises. Beautiful, rich, full of character—this is techno that's as adventurous as it is refined.
Tracklist01. Bushi
02. New Bounce
03. Cris Rose
04. New Lines