Label
REKIDS 008 & REKIDS 009
- Matt Edwards sure as hell isn’t lazy. When he’s not working under the moniker Radio Slave, turning out a kaleidoscopic range of original productions, remixes and re-edits, he’s working on soupy, sample-based Balearica with Joel Martin as Quiet Village or on more jacking and disco-edged fodder as Rekid. Then there’s his label, Rekids – which, in the mere ten or so months since its inception has already established itself as nothing short of essential.
It’s on the still infant Rekids that Edwards has chosen to don his seasoned Radio Slave guise this time, with two companion 12”s of unrelentingly dark and druggy minimal techno. Part one is headed up by the appropriately titled ‘Weeze’, a choked and claustrophobic track that builds to a subtle, unnerving climax. Used deftly in the mix and cleverly EQed, it will sound fantastic out, but on its own and in the cold light of sober day it sounds more scary than…good. On the flip, you’ll find ‘Modena’ - a much more satisfying cut. Clocking in at a hefty eleven minutes, it too takes its time in reaching its understated peak, but the trebly, cyclical synth motif is enough of a hook to lock you in and attune you to the below-surface movements of what is a really sophisticated and challenging production.
Pt. 2 kicks off with ‘Screaming Hands’, a leftfield jacker driven by a tweaked, ascending synth line that recalls Marc Houle’s blistering ‘Bay of Figs’; in the hands of your more adventurous and skilled spinners, this track will do serious after-hours damage. B-side ‘Transistor Rhythm’ is a techy, repetitive piece of work – no-nonsense, concertedly dry minimalism surely designed as much to irk as to please.
TracklistRadio Slave - No Sleep (Part One)
A Weeeze
B Modena
Radio Slave - No Sleep (Part Two)
A Screaming Hands
B Transistor Rhythm