_moonraker - Lowjit Vagrants EP

  • Share
  • A steady stream of quality 12-inches from the likes of KM / MM and MGUN in 2012 considerably widened the audience of the previously cassette-only label The Trilogy Tapes. Further releases by Tuff Sherm and Anthony Naples have solidified its status as a home for some of dance music's most intriguing producers. Though most of their releases are idiosyncratic takes on house and techno, _moonraker's debut EP is particularly bizarre—and quite compelling. Where _moonraker's earlier releases dabbled in the cosmic while remaining wedded to a techno blueprint, very little of Lowjit Vagrants can reasonably be called dance music. "Oronimbus" builds on a tinny synth loop with New Age bells and, eventually, a drum-led groove. Though its noodling passages are enjoyable, they're also a bit precious. "Plot Query" is more balanced, its thrumming, syncopated drum pattern complementing the ethereal timbres nicely—that is, until the tempo rises and the spacey vibes unexpectedly give way to a propulsive forward motion. "Cyan Lean" is a three-minute ambient interlude with more accelerating drums, and the closer "Tilt March" feels like an outlier, even on this already eccentric EP. It offers a darker take on the other tracks' spacey psychedelia, working alien percussion and volatile grooves into its patchwork of fuzzy drones.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Oronimbus A2 Plot Query B1 Cyan Lean B2 Tilt March
RA