- If your gran asked you to sum up the current sound of underground techno, you'd do well to keep your trap shut and simply fire her a copy of this. Coming off like the bastard child of Marcel Dettmann, Peter Van Hoesen, Mike Dehnert and Shed, SP-X's Signal Path Experiments couldn't sound more "now" if it tried. Which is all good and well ("now" is where it's at, right?), but when something comes along that sounds like a near-algorithmic computation of Europe's coolest techno brands, it's kind of hard to know what to say.
I mean, it does what it says on the tin—stripped down, acid-tinged Hard-Wax-going-on-headfuck techno never sounded so stripped down, acid-tinged, Hard Wax-compatible and headfucking—and that's about that. You've got twisted, mutating line crackle (tick), razor sharp, neck-pinching hi-hats (tick), skippety, shuffly snarework (tick), and even a few dub-tastic chord stabs (tick). The production is tough but swinging (tick), the tempos are high-ish (tick) and, best of all, there's no face behind the alias (big tick). All the bases are covered, basically—and yet something's not quite there; not quite. But then, maybe that's the idea? After all, functional, faceless techno for 10am party people has a very specific job to do, and whether or not it makes for juicy criticism, you can't fault SP-X—whoever he/she is—for lacking the know-how.
Tracklist A SP-17
B1 SP-10
B2 SP-14