Aquarian - QTT1

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  • With his latest release, a mixtape for the new cassette project Quiet Time, the Brooklyn-based Aquarian moves from the dance floor to its more experimental side room. This comes after the producer emerged from a two-year hiatus with his most brutal breakbeat techno yet, the self-released Bad Feeling / Insulin. He dials things back a bit here, and for a reason—favoring a format of continuous sketches or improvisations, the Quiet Time series (which also includes tapes from Huerco S., LA-band Baby and techno producer Money) wants to let producers "connect in a different way." Indeed, Aquarian's contribution is a 19-minute exploration of moody and drifting machinery. Most Aquarian tracks are heavy with chaos, but this mixtape bears a kind of slow, contemplative weight. Over its course, Aquarian moves through droning ambience, footwork and acid, pausing between each phase with spacious atmospheres painted in cold, dark strokes. An exception comes six minutes in, when a gentle soul sample drifts its way out of the fog. For a moment, the whole thing feels warm and human, but then it's blindsided by an outburst of breakbeats at dangerous tempos. The end is similarly intense, but it comes on gradually, with groggy drones, a crude kick and screeching pitch bends that fill everything with paranoia. On each listen, you want to stay locked in its grip.
  • Tracklist
      01. QTT1
RA