richard h. kirk - fear (no evil)
tracklisting : toned, case nc dada, fear (no evil), bn2
stepping out from behind his various pseudonyms of recent years, richard h. kirk plugs into his machines once more for this excellent release. the label behind the record, dust science, have in the past declared their love for all things cabaret voltaire related, so you can imagine how much love there is behind this 4 track one-off release.
subsequently, it pleases me no end to report that 3 of these tracks are drop dead classics. combining richards love for the bleep passion, dubbed up excess, found vocals, and the usual techno drum loops, he has provided us some fine examples of pure techno perfection over the years under his electronic eye, sandoz guises. i have to admit, that it has been a long time since i felt any degree of desire in tracking down his latest music, as i was always concerned that the latest music would be rather too cold and bleak and somewhat difficult to love. how wrong was i - should have known better.
the ep starts off with an uptempo track that has some embedded sly humour hidden within, as the far-from-centre placing of an old sweet exorcist styled bleep does its thing, before the track storms off into a 4/4 monster. science fiction noises form the basis of the groove, prior to a classic tr-808 beat kicks into touch, then, just as things are set up, the bleep motif is placed in the centre of the headspace, taking over control - fantastic. tis a glorious throwback to all things melodic, detroit, and techno, that i loved all those years ago when warp dominated the scene, making 'toned' the best 6 minutes of machine made noise i have heard so far this year, it's that good.
of course, the rest of the ep falls down in comparison, but even so, the standards are somewhat high. take 'casa nc dad' for example, the track has a hip hop sample loop type of opening, whereupon a tiny vocal chant sample is added and cut up like those classic cabaret voltaire tracks you have hidden away in your archive. in the past they would expand and mutate over 10 minutes sometimes to the point of patience testing, whereas here, richard takes this opening foundation, and gradually builds up the electronic noise factor ever so beautifully. heavily boomed drums are added for dancefloor action, bass bins will crumble so be careful, a clipped guitar sample adds form, and another vocal snippet provides more hooks, while various rhythmic patterns are layered and layered to a hypnotic effect. the track cannot fail to make the spine move, as the stop-start pattern is just too damn funky to ignore.
flip the record (its a 12" release) for the lead track, 'fear (no evil)', which follows the same kind of pattern with a technology enhanced imposing atmosphere, added to by the distorted processed vocals, and acidic noise before a huge dubbed up skank drags the track kicking and screaming into a whole new area - another for the classics pile. there is something about the whole ambience that just gels, proving that richards long time behind the machines has definitely paid off.
so that leaves the final, 'bn2', which doesn't do anything wrong during its 7 minutes of dirty analogue noises, dancehall beats, sweeping orchestral stabs, vocal samples, but something about the disjointed structure just begins to grate, though the addition of more reggae referencing piano samples that are dropped in from time to time, do add a welcome respite from the beat overload.
richard h. kirk is back.
sheffield techno is back.
hurray.