- Sturdy and fine-tuned techno on a new series from Carista's United Identities label.
- Carista likes Thrills In +41 so much that she started a new series on her United Identities label just to release his music. PRIMAL X is the Utrecht producer's home for making the most functional and "repetitive" (the label's word) music he can, without any bells, whistles or left turns. The first release delivers. Blending the textures of UK techno with a continental sensibility, PRIMAL X 01 is full of palpitating, pacy club gear that does the job just right.
Most of these tracks are built around some hook or intermittent motif. On the highlight "Crooked Shapes," it's the weirdly amorphous vocal that wobbles like Jell-O, and the persistent 16th-note melody that occasionally blankets the soundscape like toxic fumes. With "In Time," its the lunging, corroded synth lead that expands into squelchy womps before contracting again. And on "Pyro One," it's simply the crisp hi-hats, which are EQ'd well and programmed perfectly, making the ideal canvas for Thrills In +41's sporadic splotches of synth. That leaves the springy bounce of "Parazoa," perhaps the simplest cut here and one that moves with a housey strut. Like the others, it's the methodical addition and subtraction of an element—in this case, the snares and the hats—that really makes you appreciate the craftsmanship once it's firing on all cylinders again.
Tracklist01. In Time
02. Pyro One
03. Crooked Shapes
04. Parazoa