Peter Van Hoesen - Entropic Minus Six

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  • History teaches us that it doesn't take long for the revolutionary to be replaced by an even more daring counter-revolutionary. When Peter Van Hoesen started to make waves a few years back, his bass-heavy warehouse noir sounded like the muscular antidote to emasculated mnml. However, given that electronic music moves at an even faster pace than the opponents of an unstable regime, it would not have been unreasonable to expect that Van Hoesen's fresh and deadly effective sound would soon be superseded by something even more impressive. There endeth the history comparison because Van Hoesen did something few producers do before the rot sets in: He changed his sound. OK, it's not a radical departure, but this release, which features tracks from his debut album, is notable for a sideways shift. It's audible from the outset on the more understated "Defense Against the Self," which features a more swinging groove than usual, underpinned by a bubbling bassline, reduced percussive licks and rolling claps. "Quartz #1" is Van Hoesen at his most extreme, with a militaristic stomp, underpinned by grainy, gated beats and dark panning riffs. "Strip It, Boost It" sees Van Hoesen opt again for understatement, but the combination of the lone, cold bleep with busy, glitchy percussion and a sinewy bass is irresistible. Finally, "Terminal" dispenses with any niceties or subtleties in favour of similar eerily bleeps that featured on the previous track. They're copper-fastened to a panel-beating rhythm that juxtaposes Millsian fury with the panning, filtering insistence of Daniel Bell, a technique adopted by contemporary minimalism, that sound that Van Hoesen's emergence unwittingly dethroned. The king is dead again—long live the king.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Terminal A2 Strip It, Boost It B1 Quartz #1 B2 Defense Against The Self
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