- Athletic and occasionally swampy hardgroove revival on Irish label-to-watch Mála Ádh.
- 1morning's "Dilate" kicks off as it means to go on: tight, tense, steamrolling. A heaving bassline drops on top of high pass-filtered drums with a shimmy, somewhere between old-school UK hardgroove and the mid-'90s work of artists like Jeff Mills and Robert Hood. Pearly dub chords add a hint of polish, but otherwise "Dilate" is pure throwback madness, surprisingly dynamic in spite of its loopiness, with shreds of organ and yelping vocals adding flavour at all the right moments. "Power Source" is even more focused on the fundamentals, built around a surging synth riff with some trigger-happy filtering and hat-snare patterns that sweat and pant like a marathon runner.
These two tracks from the rising Los Angeles techno star make for an incredible split with Mála Ádh label head Céilí, who offers a similarly high-strung but slightly more volatile. Just check out what sounds like an angry swarm of hornets that appears intermittently on "Slip Something," a track that otherwise feels like it's constantly spinning out of control in every direction until the kick drums pull it all back into the fold. "Well For Some" has a slightly more contemporary sound, barreling forward with hardcore techno kicks that still weave in and out like street racers in traffic. This one is anchored by an eerie voiceover that pushes it into full-on druggy territory, like peaking on the trip that "Dilate" started out so fresh and so clean. It's modern hardgroove presented four ways, as vital and powerful as it can be.
Tracklist01. 1morning - Dilate
02. 1morning - Power Source
03. Céilí - Slip Something
04. Céilí - Well For Some