Haiku / Mike Parker - Inkblots #3

  • Share
  • The Rorschach test is one of clinical psychology's most famous tools, but it's widely misunderstood and, for the moment, rather unloved in most places. For a techno label, the appeal of ambiguous, black-and-white images is obvious. My fascination with Inkblots #3 has as much to do with considering the process of making and playing these tracks as with the music or its visual motif. For example: I wonder how wild dance floors could get when served by Haiku's itchy techno tracks. "Showdown At The House Of Blue" and "The Blood Splattered Bride" are cut for big rooms, but the top layers of texture Haiku installs in both are as sumptuous as they are confounding. (On "The Blood Splattered Bride," vapour from a glassy pad is occupied by what sounds like a balloon being twisted and tied over and over again.) Mike Parker's contributions are equally imaginative. A simple synth squiggle is wound so tightly around "Vorticular Movement" that it becomes completely disorienting, despite not much changing across its six minutes. The rhythmic shifts are as perceptible as they are deniable. "Luminescent Black"'s ping-pong chords are less of a puzzle, emphasising space over "Vorticular Movement"'s dizzy motion, but they're of a piece with the rest of Inkblots #3, a release whose artwork is the most straightforward thing about it.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Haiku - The Blood Splattered Bride A2 Haiku - Showdown At The House Of Blue B1 Mike Parker - Luminescent Black B2 Mike Parker - Vorticular Movement
RA