- Smart techno.
- Stanislav Tolkachev influenced a whole generation of techno producers with his raw and atonal sound. Among them is Irakli, a Berlin-based producer who once made up one half of I/Y and helped found Staub, a techno party that's easily among Berlin's best. Tolkachev and Irakli appear together for the first time on Inkblots #4, the latest split EP on the low-key Inkblots label run by the Italian DJ/producer Lorenzo Esposito. It offers four gnarled techno tracks in the bleeping, paranoid Tolkachev-inspired producers have been dishing out for years, yet manages to move through an impressive range of moods.
Irakli's "Topological Errors" is the EP's loosest cut. There's bounce in its bass-heavy groove, which rolls with the easygoing swagger of minimal house. But the details above—bright bleeps, keys and wooshing atmospherics—are pure hypnosis, vaguely positive sounds that will emerge from a techno set like sunlight through fog. "34 Choices Of Gender," Irakli's other track, is darker. The same goes for the two tunes from Tolkachev, who unsurprisingly delivers the most abstract selections. Where his "Taste Of Ink" feels like it's on the verge of collapse, "Equally Different" is more playable. Even so, it will take a brave DJ to unleash its paranoid bleeps on a dance floor. Play Irakli's tracks in the club, save Tolkachev's for your living room.
TracklistA1 Irakli - 34 Choices Of Gender
A2 Irakli - Topological Errors
B1 Stanislav Tolkachev -Taste Of Ink
B2 Stanislav Tolkachev - Equally Different