- UNKNOT, the collaboration between Italian producers Sciahri and Emanuele Porcinai (AKA WSR), make techno with grit and a leftfield sensibility—the result of the former's versatile, floor-minded ideas meeting the latter's penchant for unpredictable sound sources. Their sound is too wide-ranging to be particularly distinct, as if they're more interested in testing different approaches than honing just one. On their third EP, that makes for a strong A-side and a less impressive B-side.
"Strain" is a fine cut of fast-paced, evocative techno. It's made of lean, slippery, intricately interwoven broken-beat drums and sustained chords that seem to ooze in from overhead. The noirish "Lockt" packs muscular percussion that feels restrained, while 16th-note riffs squelch and stutter anxiously through the mix. It's solid, but it doesn't quite match "Strain"'s potency, if only because it's less adaptable.
"Corrosion" is the only track that depends on a straight kick. It's playfully chaotic, with its jagged percussive attacks and unhinged melodies, but it could do without the cricket-chirp FX, which start out adding to the feverish vibrance but grow tiresome. "Vapor" uses a muffled kick, and perhaps as a consequence, it seems stuck between chugging dub techno and trippy ambient, never finding its place.
TracklistA1 Strain
A2 Lockt
B1 Corrosion
B2 Vapor