- Acre, an affiliate of Manchester nights Project 13 and Hit & Run, asserted himself with a clutch of releases last year. But we were left wondering where his loyalties lay. With the Zomby-esque nocturnal tenderness of Cycles? Or "Lost Track of Time," a grime-techno collaboration with Luke Leadbelly? Or perhaps the mustier grime hybrids of Forgotten, for Visionist's Lost Codes label? The latter is probably the closest to his latest release, for Pinch's Cold Recordings. There is passing reference to grime here—in the bludgeoning bass pulses of "Switchblade"—but for the most part Acre once more ventures into new terrain.
These tracks run at techno tempo but their deadweight grooves and oppressive atmospheres seem designed to induce dazed head nodding. This is no bad thing. "Burning Memories," for example, is a laudably weird contribution to the rash of breakbeat-led productions currently doing the rounds. Though "led" might be an overstatement—Acre shatters his breaks and casts off the shards, leaving them to glimmer like slivers of glass. Elsewhere, things begin to drag a little—"Trace Loops" in particular feels plodding rather than convincingly weighty. But redemption comes from "Northern Shadows," whose morse-code rhythms inject some much-needed urgency. All are bleak almost to a fault—this is Cold, after all—but unlike some of his labelmates, Acre avoids most of the cliché pitfalls littering the dark UK techno path. Perhaps this is a sound he can commit to.
TracklistA1 Burning Memories
A2 Trace Loops
B1 Switchblade
B2 Northern Shadows