Hizatron & Bashley - Discharge EP

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  • There was a point when the Wigflex aesthetic, both visual and sonic, seemed to intersect with that of some wider movement. The label's brand of cartoonish but tricksy house and techno found parallels in the output of fellow Nottingham imprint Berkane Sol, and in London's Blunted Robots, all three thriving on the sudden influx of colour and melody facilitated by the rise of UK funky in 2008/9. Since then, missives from the tight-knit Wigflex crew have been few and far between, and have tended to chart the imprint's growing distance from the zeitgeist—this year's Met EP by label stalwart Metaphi appeared to take its cues, more than anywhere, from the grandiose melodics of the Border Community camp. The latest from Hizatron and lesser-known label affiliate Bashley—three long-form techno work-outs whose hollowed-out percussive frameworks are flooded with rich, buzzing synthetic melodies—confirms this stylistic orientation. It's not such a leap from Hizatron's past output, though less playful than last year's Hza EP and, sad to say, not a patch on the man's masterpiece: the twitchy, M.C. Escher-like acid jack track "Von Gloopertsein." Still, the title track plays on a familiar sense of slightly comic dread, its juddering synth sequence frequently rearing up to submerge the mix in snarling, high-end partials. "Baggah Peeds" plays a similar trick, and over a similarly martial techno shuffle, but both lack a certain purpose, preferring to cycle erratically through different levels of intensity rather than rationing them out into a propulsive whole. The duo sketch out a more cavernous synthetic space in "Coat Angah," meanwhile, with cloud-like pads keeping things tranquil while one of those trademark stuttering basslines gets to work underneath. The formula may be much the same, but the equilibrium struck between the placid and the pugnacious makes for an altogether more compelling listen.
  • Tracklist
      A Discharge B1 Bagga Paeds B2 Coat Angah
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