Review: It's easy to dismiss Italian producer Obtane as being too serious. While his releases on Zooloft bear truly strange names, there is no doubt that he makes arresting, at times disturbing music. For much of Garden, he focuses on the abstract and textured - indeed "Sonic Entomology" is little more than a series of outer space bleeps and blips. Obtane follows it with "Mescaline Garden Hose", where a wash of growling noise is eventually transformed into kicking drums and powerful bassy belches. Obtane returns to familiar Zooloft territory on "Opium Vision" and "Inner Absorption"; stripped back and droning, the intense pulsing basslines house eerie acid licks and mysterious, half-heard mumbling vocals.
Review: On Analysis, Deepbass provides a glimpse of techno at its most abstract. The only dance floor friendly variation occurs on "XY02", where a tracky groove supports the tranced out synths. In the main, Deepbass is content to provide a soundtrack that shies away from the confines of the club. "XY01" is a terse affair, with a series of bleeps giving way to a dreamy soundscape, while "XY03" follows a similar trajectory at the beginning before morphing into atmospheric synths. Finally, "XY04" is the most abstract interpretation of this sound, offering little more than an understated, metallic percussive pattern and a broken, plink-plonk rhythm.
Review: Japanese DJ Hironori Takahashi drops a diverse release on Nax Acid's cult London label Aconito. "Serve" is the most conventional sounding contribution - a dense, white noise-layered serving of tracky techno. However, Takahashi changes tact for "Outgass"; clocking in at over ten minutes, it sees him give full vent to his musical leanings, with spacey textures and fragile piano lines reflected against slow motion, organic drums. The edit of "Outgass" by Nax Acid makes a return of sorts to clubby sensibilities, with subtle break beats and a pulsing bass complementing Takahashi's emotive pianos - but it's hard to avoid the feeling that the Japanese artist is more comfortable when cruising through the cosmos rather than when seeking to ignite the dancefloor.
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