- Etch's track titles have never been grandiose, but this is the first time he's ditched them entirely. Each cut on this EP for Sneaker Social is simply called "Untitled Hardcore" and assigned a number. Fittingly, the EP shows the jungle revivalist at his most direct. "Hardcore" is a bit of a misnomer: while these tracks run at early-'90s tempos, their detailed breaks edits, cool moods and tangy timestretched samples reference the jungle of a few years later. Sometimes they could do with a bit more of their namesake's raucous 'tude. On "#4," the vocal bigging up "man like motherfucking Etch in the place" sounds almost bored, and the breakbeats bob and weave with a smooth proficiency that doesn't quite capture jungle's capacity to shock. Etch has been developing this style for a while now, and a dose of the unexpected wouldn't hurt.
Elsewhere, though, the EP's concision works well—particularly in contrast to the meandering Technicolour Daydream. "#2" is the most satisfying, thanks to the Photek-ish drums that rat-tat-tat into view after a lengthy intro. This techy sound is unusual for Etch, and elsewhere he falls back on woodier breakbeats and rough-cut samples. The opener pairs creepy Bernard Herrmann-like strings with a filtered vocal sample for an intriguing mix of funk and fright. "#3" is the odd one out, sprawling to seven and a half minutes. The extra time allows Etch to explore more extreme contrasts—dreamy, sighing breakdowns versus bone-dry breakbeat onslaughts. But the nagging suspicion remains: what, at jungle tempo, might have been a razor-sharp five minutes is just a little sluggish pitched down.
TracklistA1 Untitled Hardcore #1
A2 Untitled Hardcore #2
B1 Untitled Hardcore #3
B2 Untitled Hardcore #4