- Beautifully sculpted broken-beat techno.
- There aren't too many electronic artists who have a sub-label dedicated to their music. Skee Mask has Ilian Skee, and Clone's Aqualung series is dedicated exclusively to music from the various projects related to Drexciya, for example. Having recently served up some up high-quality hypnotizers on Delsin's Mantis series and drum & bass / techno hybrids on DISK, Konduku returns to the K series on Nous'klaer Audio, a sub-catalogue of the Rotterdam label dedicated solely to his music and photography.
Konduku is gifted at shuffled drums and rhythmic tension. By the time he's tapped into your core, a relatively simple melody can have an oversized effect. Take the switch-up around two minutes into "Devre," as arpeggiated bells change tack with a sleight of hand. It's the kind of moment that can sound earth-shattering when correctly deployed.
"Orbu," the title track, is a whirlwind of delay and reverb. The construction is nimble, affixed by rumbling bass that sounds like it was built with towering soundsystems in mind. "Ayva" steps to a similar beat, but its melting top line is a little too familiar. The most functional of the four, "Cablin," turns up the BPMs. It's taut and spartan compared to the rest of the record, lending itself to the more direct DJs.
TracklistA1 Orbu
A2 Cablin
B1 Devre
B2 Ayva