- I fell in love with techno because it boils down to one beautiful thing: the thrill of the bold new record that shows up in the middle of the night without any explanation. Electronic music is about the mysterious frequencies issuing from a speaker in a concrete basement and revealing strange new worlds from artists who refuse to give you anything to hang onto. Anonymous, diffuse and cloaked in mythology: this is how records like "Losing Control" and "Phylyps Trak II" made the rounds 15 years ago and it's heartening to see this approach is still alive in today's age of digital chatter. The latest record from the Thriller camp is filed under "Unknown Artist" and this applies to the genre, too. Techno, lounge, dubstep – I can't figure it out. What I can tell you is that I haven't been this excited about a record since Jichael Mackson's Breitling Orbiter 8 or, going further back, Thomas Brinkmann's entry into the 20' to 2000' series.
"Swarm" does exactly what it advertises, buzzing and looping like a busted videogame soundtrack with a few high tones that keep creeping up the scale and twisting the screws. The tension is stretched so tight that when a few sharp hi-hats pop up at the last minute, the effect is devastating. Despite its low-slung tempo, "Swarm" is a remarkably aggressive track and very well executed. Nonetheless, it's destined to live in the shadow of its massive sister…
At eleven minutes, "Hubble" is an unwieldy machine that sounds like an old disco 45 slowed down to 33 revolutions per minute. You can hear the plastic cracking and the needle jumping as it spins you into a slow narcotic haze. There's a remarkably raw texture here, as if the song were built from scotch tape and string. Little fractured gasps of soulful moaning are carefully hung along the peaks while scraps of melody blanket the floor of the track: a few swelling chords here, a flight of lasers there. As "Hubble" breaks apart around the seven-minute mark, you realize what an improbable structure it is and you're left marveling at the serendipity of finding a record like this.
Tracklist A Swarm
B Hubble