- Global Darkness's anonymous R-Zone label was one of 2013's most interesting projects. Alongside on-trend reimaginings of hardcore and acid techno, the label's guest producers have dabbled in gritty house, waterlogged electro and grubby takes on hi-NRG. A none-too-serious sense of fun has pervaded each release. The series' eighth instalment is arguably its darkest, but even beneath the blaring synths you can just about see a grin glinting in the darkness.
Admittedly, you've got to look mighty hard to find it on "303909," with its stomping drums echoing away into nothingness, like a grumpy Marcel Dettmann waking up hungover. But in the second half, as cavernous stabs roil and churn, an almost uplifting riff emerges. That's the trick throughout—start coalmine dark and gradually reveal some chink of light.
In "Percept" it's when the grainy electro lick snaps into focus, augmented by pitched snares for a call-and-response track that begs to be marched to. And in "We Sad II" resonant synths that sound like a call to evacuate fade away, replaced by a ravey piano riff. It might not be the chuckling pipes of R-Zone 05's "Jungle Raver" or the hardcore bounce of 06's "Night Level II," but here it's about contrast. Surrounded by such blackness, the flashes of light shine that much brighter.
TracklistA Percept
B1 We Sad ll
B2 303909