Opening up the first of two Wicker & Steel remix EPs is CLR's Tommy Four Seven, a producer whose own debut album came out to a great response earlier this year. Tommy switches Start Chopping's 4/4 rhythms for his own broken beat foundation and adds a whole new world of bass to the track. The original's pads echo around the soundscape as each break brings back a tougher version of the beat.
Next up are Warp/Dust Science/Soma legends The Black Dog. Keeping Gonkle's beating heart in place they add subtle synths lines and pads to add a melancholic edge to one of Wicker & Steel's tougher tracks, without ever losing any of the original's impact.
On the flip-side we witness the first ever collaboration between London producers Sigha (Blueprint/Hot Flush) and Truss (Stroboscopic Artefacts/Perc Trax). Combining their love of techno with a
bass music mentality the duo serve up a jackin' semi-broken groove topped off with all manner of drones and rhythmic effects.
Finally ASC, one of the stars of Instra:mental's Nonplus stable makes his Perc Trax debut, cutting up the now familiar industrial drum assault of 'My Head Is Slowly Exploding' into an Autonomic style 170bpm stepper. A move away from the typically smooth Autonomic sound this is something completely new. Industrial -tinged D&B that is a world away from the apocalyptic No U-Turn sound of the mid to late 90's.
"In this month's Resident Advisor label profile, Blackest Ever Black owner Kiran Sande seems conflicted. In a good way. Creating his label, he suggests, was an attempt to address his doubts that, frequently, dance music is an empty pleasure. "Nobody grills a house or dubstep producer on what their music is actually about, because we know from the outset it's not about anything, and nor do we expect it to be. But after a while you begin to crave content, don't you"
"4/4 techno as functional party music is timeless - it quite simply works - but ... does it tell us anything of the way we live or ought to live
I've no idea what Sande thinks of Perc's Wicker and Steel, but if, like him, you are currently looking for electronic music that is more than a simple invitation to dance, then you will find this album (two EPs of remixes are also due in October) one of this year's few essential releases.
In a year of riots, phone hacking and looming economic meltdown, 35-year-old Haringey-based, Ali "Perc" Wells, has created the perfect mood music for the time. Unrelentingly serious, at times tender and vulnerable, Wicker and Steel is a bleak audio montage of modern Britain, created from hard techno, ambient drones and reconditioned industrial noise." - GUARDIAN
