- The first release on Milo Bragg's Future Primitive label is an intriguing mix of new and old. Its two tracks are sourced from the '90s catalogue of Rome techno producer Leo Anibaldi but they've never appeared together, and one of them has been edited to give it a contemporary spin. They work excellently as a pair, demonstrating Anibaldi's spooky, IDM-leaning style at its most up-to-date. The result is a good example of how a proactive approach to reissues can separate a label from the pack.
"Aeon Fusion I," taken from 1994's Aeon EP, appears as a "2016 Stretched Edit"—meaning that the tempo's been dropped to bring it within reach of modern DJs. You wouldn't know it: the hi-hats and pitter-patter snares skitter like spooked cockroaches over the palpitating low-end. These elements could make for a peaktime banger, but the midrange has been emptied right out, leaving a ghostly melody wafting through the murk.
The B-side, "Evocation Part II (Remastered)," is taken from 1996's Void LP for Rephlex. In a sense it's similar—the percussion light, the melody heavily reverbed so that it harmonises with itself. Only it's as if the A-side has been turned inside out: the percussion is a vague cloud of background static and the melody upfront, heavy and mournful, as if echoing through one of Rome's spectacular churches. Neither track really goes anywhere, but their stasis is hypnotic.
TracklistA Aeon Fusion I (2016 Stretched Edit)
B Evocation Part II (Remastered)