- Stanislav Tolkachev's records often feature an ambient track or two. His best—and the beloved Ukrainian has hit some dizzying heights—ditch his dance tracks' post-Mills funk but keep the wonky, spiralling hypnosis. Or else they go for sonic overload, supplying transcendental moments for spun-out dance floors. There is one track on this non-dance EP for Mord that falls in the latter camp—the opener, "Eternal Dawn," which is as blearily euphoric as the name suggests. From there Tolkachev settles into a scratchy exploratory style, each track a grizzled synth pattern spun into elliptical loops. Where his techno can be effortlessly experimental, these tracks feel self-consciously difficult, and not his best.
Their success mostly depends on their intensity. "Perforated Spoon" thunders nicely through, its oily splats and splutters periodically turning molten. "Pocket For A Leaky Coin" is made of similar stuff, though its string of eardrum-scraping ideas follow an odd disjointed logic. "Landowner" is the EP's most intriguing could-have-been, its roiling syncopations begging to be transformed into a broken-beat techno monster.
The energy dips further at the EP's tail-end. "There Is Almost No God" and "Bleed On Me" feature a single loop—not so much rhythmic as repetitious—drenched in sheets of noise. Both sound static and lifeless, as if Tolkachev left his setup running while making a cup of tea. The seething mulch of "No One Waves Goodbye," meanwhile, sounds like a downtempo track fractured into a million tiny shards. It's nice to hear Tolkachev pull his music apart, but the real trick will be when he puts it back together again.
TracklistA1 Eternal Dawn
A2 Landowner
A3 Perforated Spoon
B1 Pocket For A Leaky Coin
B2 There Is Almost No God
B3 Bleed On Me
B4 No One Waves Goodbye