Article
Spotlight 6

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

Blixaboy: Intro To Futro
Concrete Plastic

Following his 2010 Kliks & Politiks full-length release on astroblaque, Dallas, Texas producer Mwanza Dover brings the noise to a well-crafted Concrete Plastic debut under his Blixaboy moniker. Weaving elements of dubstep, house, and acid into four crisp tracks, Intro To Futro presents an eighteen-minute EP of exuberant bass-science that sounds very much of the moment.

The opener “Daywalkers” moves with a light-footed skip that has the material barreling forward with an unwavering urgency. Here and elsewhere, Dover merges the low-end bass thrust of dubstep with the aerodynamic swing and shimmy of house and overlays it with arcarde-styled blips and melodic synth fire—“Dayrunners” more like it. By contrast, the title track opens forebodingly with ominous tones and mini-detonations before seguing into a second helping of uptempo beatsmithing, with this time the kinetic thrust of the intricate beat pattern augmented by immense galaxial showers. “Shadow Man” transplants us to the club with a straight-up 4/4 tech-house pulse that finds a pounding kick drum-and-hi-hat combination offset by a distorted voiceover that's equal parts croak and shred. Though more dancefloor-focused, the track's as fleet-footed as the others and the spring in its step as unstoppable. Opening at a crawl, “The Outsider” initially presents itself as the atmospheric counterpart to the EP's other offerings before shaking off its lugubriousness, dusting itself off, and rolling out an uptempo pulse that pops and sashays without a seeming care in the world. Intro To Futro isn't groundbreaking, necessarily, but it's certainly a credible enough contribution, and, to his credit, Dover makes it all sound easy on a polished mini-set that bodes well for the future.

February 2012