- Electro for your journey through the wormhole.
- I was struck by how much Blotter Trax 2.0 reminded me of the dark and twisted moods in the first half of Ectomorph's recent Resident Advisor podcast. Assuming that Magda and T.B. Arthur had taken the project in a slightly different direction, it was only later that I realised that BMG, AKA Brendan M. Gillen of Ectomorph, had collaborated with the pair on this release, apparently jamming with them in Arthur's Berlin studio in 2017, before Magda later edited down the sessions. (This EP actually came out originally as a limited-press run on Arthur's (312) label last year, but it's now been given a wider release through the Dutch electro label Frustrated Funk.) Gillen seems to have been a calming influence on Magda and Arthur, who tone down the animated acid lines of the first Blotter Trax release into something more withdrawn and ghostly.
On two of the tracks, the trio stretch out to ten-plus minutes, which suits the wormhole mood they're gunning for. "2.1" creeps forward in a state of anxiety, the simple, slow electro beat haunted by the strings and synths. Paranoia also grips "2.2." We're lulled into considering it a more playful track, before a malignant arpeggio turns up and sours the mood. Although the shorter "2.3" allows at least a little light to bleed into its electro framework, all three tracks made me think of She's A Dancing Machine, the shadowy mix Magda released in 2006, at a point before minimal began chasing its own tail with endless bleeps and bloops. There are differences between She's A Dancing Machine and Ectomorph's podcast. But this release, like both mixes, shows the quiet power of this type of twilit techno and electro.
TracklistA1 2.1
B1 2.2
B2 2.3