- Debuts don't get more dazzling than LOFT's Turbulent Dynamics. There were raging drum solos ("Yes"), club show-stealers ("Heffalump") and ambient catharsis ("With Eye Contact"), all delivered with madcap flair. On its follow-up, the Manchester producer takes that writhing snake sack of ideas and squeezes it into a more defined shape. Three Settlements Four Ways continues a dialogue started on the first EP with smart, shapeshifting rhythms and sentimental melody. The conversation plays out across four kinda dance floor epics full of twists, turns and playful detail. The results don't smack you round the chops like Turbulent Dynamics did, but what they lack in shock they make up for in mesmerising drama.
At the EP's open and close, those sentimental synths get the upper hand. "Filton Recal" opens with gentle euphoria, its chord sighs and sepia lead-lines lending a redemptive glow to the technoid drums. "Pottlin" is even more cuddly at first, but its pensive melodies only hold court for the first minute or so. From there, the drums–soft and crumpled but fiendishly detailed—draw the focus for the level midsection, before regrouping around new, firmer chords.
Structure and deft arrangement elevates LOFT's already strong ideas to the level of brilliance. "Funemployed" is the best evidence of his knack for keeping you guessing. The track's percussion patterns don't sit still for a second, forever glitching, bobbing and weaving, letting out squeaks and pops and the odd Bruce-like effects smear. All this nervous energy unfurls during an epic breakdown, before coiling abruptly back into itself like the power cable on a vacuum cleaner. On "Oh Well, We're All Fucked Now," mutant techno is replaced with wilder club shapes befitting of LOFT's former home, The Astral Plane. The dialogue between the bits that make you dance and the bits that bliss you out remains. It's a dialogue at least as old as dance music, giving fascinating new form in LOFT's music.
TracklistA1 Filton Recal
A2 Funemployed
B1 Oh Well, We're All Fucked Now
B2 Pottlin