- For his LA-4A project, Kevin McHugh mostly works to a tight brief. To describe it, he's used the term "roots techno"—a code for banging club tools with a classical bent. The brutish psychedelia of early acid techno and electro is invoked, but it's tempered with lower tempos and measured arrangements for current big-room use. Following last year's more varied and exploratory {Phonautograph} LP, the latest LA-4A release once again twists this formula.
Or perhaps that should be shreds it. The first 30 seconds of the lead track, "Panic," are a barrage of kick drum and lacerating hi-hats, as if the two are limbering up for a scrap. They soon cohere into a mean, redlining electro beat, which repeatedly dissolves into further stuttering pileups. A looped vocal—the hook, you might think—enters in minute two, but McHugh abruptly ditches it, instead letting an obnoxious acid squelch guide him through the track's second half. LA-4A has rarely sounded so raw and volatile, so the results may connect with listeners who otherwise find McHugh's music a little tame.
"Ecstasy" keeps the spartan materials but returns to familiar techniques. A diva sample brings the party, while noxious synth swirls provide the headtrip. The B-side, which contains two versions of the track "Snake Eyes," remains stabler. The "Acid Return" is about suspense—when the kick drum enters, it only marks the bar, leaving 303 snarls and jittery percussion to lock the dance floor in stasis. The "Beaten Mix" returns to loping electro, only with less libido. The hook around which both versions are built—a processed vocal slithering ghoulishly through the upper register—isn't quite hands-in-the-air gear.
TracklistA1 Panic
A2 Ecstasy
B1 Snake Eyes (Beaten Mix)
B2 Snake Eyes (Acid Return)