textura

Albums
Alsace Lorraine
Becuzzi & Orsi
Andreas Bertilsson
Cheju
Coleclough & Liles
Dev/Null
DJ Bone
eRikm (Ferrari) & Lehn
Fisk Industries
Fridge
Hanna Hartman
Jazkamer
Laub
Madagascar
Manasyt
Mus
Organum
Pandatone
People Press Play
Laurent Perrier
Porn Sword Tobacco
Pylône
Milford Reynolds
Rumskib
Skeletons and Kings
Ran Slavin
Stateless
Televise
Throbbing Gristle
Tied + Tickled Trio
Akello Uchenna
Brendan Walls
John Watermann
Mark Williams
YACHT
Z'ev / David Linton
Zonk't

Compilations / Mixes
Beat Dimensions Vol. 1
Buzzin' Fly Vol. 4
Hernan Cattaneo
Hot Chip
Jamie Jones

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
A Guy Called Gerald
Ambivalent
Apparat
Atone
Audion
Dan Berkson
Andres Bucci
Taylor Deupree
Emot. Joystick / Line 47
Feel the Beast
Renato Figoli
John Keys
Komonazmuk
Ed Laliq
Miskate
Peace Division
Alix Roy
Sinner DC
Someone Else
Urban Tribe

Ambivalent: R U OK
M_nus

Ambivalent (Kevin McHugh) holds nothing back on his first Minus outing, making R U OK perhaps the filthiest sounding 12-inch to bolt from the Minus stables yet. The sleaziest moment comes first in the title cut where McHugh lays a distorted, gravelly voice (its tone resembles a stalker brutalizing a captive in an interrogation though the text itself indicates that it's one side of a club conversation) over a stripped-down, rumbling groove and an equally demented synth figure (an a cappella version follows which allows one to fully savour the perverted text). “Indecision” rolls out with a clockwork rumble and a spindly hook that needles its way into your skull. A wretch or two by McHugh punctuates the groove but then retires, clearing the way for an increasingly insistent drone figure that transports the tune into Consumed-styled Plastikman territory. Ambivalent ends the vinyl version of R U OK with “Nugget,” a strutting bit of business where an acidy synth line woozily snakes its way through a slap-infested pit. Two digital exclusives also accompany the release: “Bunt,” an acidic swizzle-fest of warped melodic burblings and slippery shuffles, and “Cold Hands,” a twilight romp of owl-like synth reverberations and rolling bass lines that neatly rounds out the release by reintroducing the disturbed vocal style with which it began.

June 2007

This review also appears in Grooves.