- LA's hardest-working producer turns in an album of eerie hardgroove with just the right amount of funk.
- Adrian Sandoval has been a key figure in LA techno for about as long as LA techno has been around. Since he first started mixing records as part of LA's backyard party scene in '92, he's been a vital node in the scene, working his way up from designing flyers and working at a vinyl distribution factory to one of the most respected names internationally to emerge from the harder edges of the West Coast scene. But it's only in the last decade that he's started focusing on productions. Sandoval never does things by half measures, though, so since 2009 he's put out a staggering 100-plus releases, mainly through his own Modularz imprint (and various sub-labels), including two full-lengths last year alone. He starts 2023 with Hexmode, an album of meticulous techno that sees him focus in on the resurgent hardgroove of the late '90s.
Sandoval's debut LP, 2014's In Pure Form, had the feel of someone making up for lost time. Techno is practically in Sandoval's DNA, and across three hours he crafted a magnum opus that ranged from big room bangers to Interdimensional Transmissions-style psychedelia. Although there's a bit of variety on Hexmode—the sparse, Terrence Dixon-referencing "Feminine Allure" and the off-beat drums and density of "Hidden Rituals" come to mind—this album trades breadth for depth. Sandoval locks in at the 132-to-138 BPM sweet spot for an album of claustrophobic and angsty techno with minor-key arpeggios and creeping, reverb-laden chords over precise and sharp drum grids. (It doesn't get spookier than the spectral shadows "Perdido" casts over its closed hi-hats).
In lesser hands, this might make for a homogenous album or a flat listen, but Sandoval's tracks are all about precision functionality and detailed intricacy. His tracks are a little too funky to be tools, giving the album if not a narrative then at least a sense of forward momentum. "Freaky Signals," for example, balances a creeping eeriness buried low in the mix with an uplifting gated melody. On "No Traitors," he begins with the album's most industrial-strength drum programming but the track—thanks to a dusty chord pattern in the second half—becomes so groovy you could imagine an adventurous house DJ playing it (pitched-down, of course). The gentle, fizzing synths on "Heart Pacing" remind me of the softness of strawberry glazing sliding down cake (or maybe I'm just watching too much Great British Bake Off).
This doesn't mean there aren't a few missteps on the record. The string arrangement on both "Volver" and "Persuasion Group" are probably a bit too Radio 1-orchestral-adaptation for the parties that Sandoval plays, but you can't blame him for really going for it on both tracks. That aside, Hexmode is a masterclass in funky, functional techno. For someone who has been at it for over 30 years, Sandoval still sounds like a kid in a synth shop, amazed at what he can make techno sound like.
Tracklist01. Throne To THrone
02. Freaky Signals
03. Persuasion Group
04. Ghost Groove
05. Perdido
06. Feminine Allure
07. Heart Pacing
08. No Traitors
09. Pure With Intent
10. The Divine Shine
11. Hidden Rituals
12. Volver