Review: Known for release with Is It Balearic? Recordings and Hungarian Hot Wax, producer and vocalist Dan Wainwright makes his way to Tronik Youth's Nein label. Sporting three originals that channel and new wave, dark disco sound, there's a deep, atmospheric and percussive momentum to this EP, as if were channelling the atmospheres of a midnight oasis somewhere. To get you there is the highway burn of "The Universal" Energy" with "Close To The Bone" and "This Is The Place" sinking you further into Wainwright's twilight abyss. Label boss Tronik Youth adds an uptempo industrial touch to Wainwright's downtempo trip "Cult Haze (One Of Us)", with an edgy Mytron remix heavy on the cowbell and guitars.
Review: Tronik Youth's Nein label bring us the debut EP (we think!) from the mysterious Slum 159, a producer with seemingly no online presence at all. In this case he really can afford to "let the music do the talking", though, because if you're a fan of darker disco styles influenced by EBM and electro you'll find much to enjoy here. 'Decade' itself is a fairly unremarkable throbber with a woodwind-like synth sound taking the lead - From Beyond's beefier remix works better, to these ears. But 'Plastic', with its air of 80s sleaze and menace, is really quite distinctive sounding, and Los Fugazzi's moody, prog-tinged refix is a killer.