- Glaswegian Lanark Artefax (AKA Calum MacRae) was inspired to make Glasz after seeing UIQ label head Lee Gamble DJ at Bloc Festival in 2015. He's ended up with a stuttering, fragmented style that moves smoothly before shuddering to a halt. It's a bit like watching a beautifully shot film on a scratched DVD, with the actors becoming locked in glitches whose sharp edges and saturated colours reveal underlying digital structures. It often sounds like the producer is wildly scrubbing through the DAW's master BPM setting, while also shifting the start and end points of each sample. Tremolos and auto-pans (and much more besides) carve chunks of audio into furling and unfurling sheets, simultaneously exploring spatial and rhythmic parameters. These traits are recognisable in latter-day Autechre, Holly Herndon and John Wall. As such, Glasz will sound intellectual and willfully difficult to some, where others will declare it important and forward-thinking. And then there's those with no opinion who'll destroy grime dance floors with the explosive title track.
Glasz tends toward the cold and remote. But like many of his sonic contemporaries, MacRae's key moments are sensual and empathetic, qualities that read all the stronger given their steely surroundings. They're in the plangent chords of "Virtual Bodies" and the clipped cries of angelic digital voices littered across the EP. Opener "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" is particularly thrilling. Objects of various shapes, sizes and textures hurtle by, while jittering volume envelopes control and release tension with the rapid-fire delivery of an auctioneer. Some of the synth and drum sounds betray an association to grime, a common trait in this type of modern dance music. But while Glasz will sound familiar to fans of such a style, there's a voice here that's well worth following, especially considering the producer is only 22.
TracklistA1 All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
A2 Remainder I
B1 Glasz
B2 Phasze (s_h_i_f_t)
B3 Virtual Bodies