- Since his landmark Diversions 1994-1996, Lee Gamble has become a purveyor of haunted, disembodied rave music. Most of his productions exist in a liminal space, a dream of breakbeats and siren synths that comes out wrong but is more intriguing for it. Since 2014's excellent KOCH, he's been trying his hand at a version of straight-up DJ records. Last year's B23 Steelhouse toughened his sound for ostensible club use, and the one constant on his latest record, Chain Kinematics, is a bludgeoning, inescapable kick. The EP is the first part of his label UIQ's Inversions series and it's his most straight-ahead work to date.
"004" begins with that nasty kick, which is soon slathered with pads as ominous as a gray sky. The corroded techno template is complicated by a vocal sample that sounds like a house diva falling down a flight of stairs, along with some equally chaotic snare fills. A similar percussive attack begins "For Infernomatics," albeit with a brief ambient respite that fills the air with cumulus clouds of psychedelic synth. The track twists and turns, and only at the end do the drums lock in around a hollowed-out synth stab. On "Kinematics," laser-like trance leads are shot into panning, randomized patterns. The kick anchors minor-key choral pads that conjure a somber, ghostly mood. As he often does, Gamble eventually reduces the track to a Disintegration Loops-style shadow of its former self. "Cnull" continues to explore a fascination with eviscerated jungle, with pitched-up snares threatening to break out of their lo-fi techno cage. Feeling transitional and bashed out, Chain Kinematics is experimental music in the most literal sense. Gamble splices various strands of dance music's DNA without needing to know or understand the results.
TracklistA1 004
A2 For Infernomatics
B1 Kinematics
B2 Cnull