- These days it seems like everyone in England can't help but to want to try out a new tempo. After dropping a drum & bass album on Exit last year, Genotype's first record for Bristol's Deca Rhythm lies somewhere near the gates of classic techno. Characterised by a rushing sense of minimalism, "Breaking the Rules of Sound" could easily be a Robert Hood creation. It's built around just one simple, dangerously-throbbing motif, but feels like much more than that, Genotype's rolling, filtered drums and wraith-like atmospherics playing tricks on the ears. "Weather that Weather" offers similar thrills, packaging them up into more benign form. Rather than throb, its grubby hook bounces cheerfully from side-to-side, and its pads are warm and breezy, not ominous.
"Truth Hurts People" is all kinds of niggly; the type of track which wriggles its way further and further under the skin with successive listens. Here, Genotype's use of quiet is effective, trembling synths sinking downwards, just so they can be pushed right back up by lumbering bass. Surprisingly, it's the record's eponymous cut, "Ill Shit," which is its weakest. The stripped simplicity of its clattering drums and nasty, Reese-like bass echo the quality found elsewhere on the EP, but Genotype's vocal sampling is far from judicious. In the latter half of the track, the "ill shit" sample is trotted out so many times it becomes hard to concentrate on anything else. This is, however, a one-off event on the 12-inch. Sans the bells and whistles, Ill Shit otherwise feels focussed and powerful.
Tracklist01. Breaking the Rules of Sound
02. Truth Hurts People
03. ILL Shit
04. Weather What Weather