Review:
Mark E has been in fine form of late, remixing everyone from Boys Noize to Mic Newman and returning to last year's excellent debut album Stone Breaker to rework one of its highlights. His Space Dub of "Oranges" works as a neat prelude to the sounds explored here on the ninth release on his own Merc imprint; the same sort of piston-heavy rhythms at play there are driving "Snow Walker" on this EP. Sounding as if Evetts has compressed a forgotten soul classic beneath the weight of the rhythmic textures that lay thick at the core, this is an excellent example of highly pressurised slow techno that still has soul. Up next, a computerised female vocal adds only a vague hint of humanity to "Environment", a lolloping hunk of industrial machine funk with rusted textures scraping away at a desolate soundscape with worrying rhythmic aplomb. Listening to this makes "RnB Junkie" seem like an all too distant memory.