- The Parisian duo Minimum Syndicat do '90s rave with a grisly modern twist. They take banging techno back to its filthy acid and electro roots, completing the circle with a nasty paranoia that can only be from this century: hard, dark and sometimes incredibly trippy. A decade ago they launched a self-titled label for their old-meets-new-school sound, inviting a different guest artist on each record. In recent years they've stepped outside the label for releases, so Joyless Euphoria, featuring Sunil Sharpe on the A-side, is their first appearance on Minimum Syndicat in years.
You can always count on Sharpe to deliver something squiffy, and his two tracks, "The Tunnel Master" and "Rope To String," don't disappoint. They're the joyful side of Joyless Euphoria. The first is pleasantly gloopy with fun, bubbling sounds, while the other is a pranging electro-techno track with sombre undertones. Minimum Syndicat's "Mass Evacuation" lets a storm of spangled synth notes and acid stabs loose over a barrage of distorted kicks. It's not their most interesting track but it's fearsomely functional. "Nosebleed" is a better example of their apocalypse rave aesthetic. Emulating The Mover with an edgy kid of euphoria, it's a chemically induced high that's on the turn—things are about to get bad.
TracklistA1 Sunil Sharpe - The Tunnel Master
A2 Sunil Sharpe - Rope To String
B1 Minimum Syndicat - Mass Evacuation
B2 Minimum Syndicat - Nosebleed