- The debut release on Lee Gamble's UIQ label comes from Latvian Martins Rokis, whose work under his birth name moves in the art world more than music spheres. Gamble, of course, straddles that line himself, and Rokis' oblique club tracks can sound about as noxious and alien as the PAN artist's own. Familiar sounds often appear in unstable configurations, like the frantic snare tattoos and bass groans of "Iguana Love Bite," which could've made for a footwork-ish banger were they not so sickly and unsteady on their feet. "Stuck In A Cube" leans on a firmer house groove, but its decayed sonics and sinister mood make the 4/4 beat feel claustrophobic rather than liberating.
Elsewhere Rokis' mixdowns get ever denser and gaseous. It's a striking sound, though in places the wobbly beats might have been better served by clarity. On both the title track and "Lonely Is The New Black," glitch effects are sculpted into churning loop pieces. On the latter, they grow ever more swirling and confused, until the whole thing fizzles out from exhaustion.
TracklistA1 Iguana Love Bite
A2 Lonely Is The New Black
B1 Stuck In A Cube
B2 Wrong Headspace