Imre Kiss - Overthrown

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  • If Lobster Theremin's endless torrent of lo-fi house and techno records, channelled through a confusing system of sub- and side-labels, leaves you at a loss, then you're not alone. But while it's hard to find a standout record to orient you in the tide, dipping in at any point tends to yield something at least passably good. Overthrown, by Hungary's Imre Kiss, favours refinement over the freer experimentation of his 2014 EP Raw Energy, and adheres to a smudged fidelity that increasingly feels limiting. (Tracks this muffled are tough to mix with anything apart from other tracks this muffled.) But for all that, the music is satisfying, the sound of somebody handling a well-defined style with skill. "Never" is the most striking. At almost 140 BPM, its frenetic percussion contrasts with the minor-key pads drifting in the midrange. In this case, Imre Kiss's lo-fi lens is right for the job: the raging drums are made to appear pillowy and somehow insubstantial, letting you drift at the synths' slower pace. Elsewhere, the focus turns to percussive weight. The slower "Stateless" works patiently into a nice broken-beat sway; it's held together by its bassline, a dubwise depth-charge that sucks the power out of the mix every couple of bars. On the untitled B-side, droning leads cluster against the compression ceiling until they're pumping hard around the kick. It's a familiar effect, but Imre Kiss executes it well.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Never A2 Stateless B1 Untitled
RA