For many techno producers, the album format presents a kind of identity crisis: do you stick to your guns, change your sound completely or just pad it with the usual ambient passages? Adrian Sandoval, the LA artist known as Developer, has chosen to fight fire with fire. His debut album offers up 25 tracks of slamming dance tunes (spread over two different formats) with absolutely no respite. It's an audacious move that, along with the lack of track titles, makes In Pure Form seem like the lump sum what he's been working on over the past year. The kicker is that it works as an album too, provided you don't mind the galloping pace.
This is Developer at his best, with no half-assed moments or by-the-numbers tools. It's all the more remarkable given Sandoval's uneven discography, where functional brutalism often gets the best of him. Here he nails every iteration of techno he tries, from reverb-heavy melodrama to squirming, bass-heavy numbers. On one track we get vocals and what sounds like a saxophone sample, while loose tribal rhythms, dusky Workshop vibes and atmospheres à la Aphex Twin are strewn about elsewhere. There's even a piano near the end.
What those disparate styles have in common is Sandoval's basic formula: powerful percussion, one or two melodic elements and a good sense of dynamics. This makes the LP a fun and consistently exciting ride, even if you listen to all 25 in one go. But the album wasn't quite designed that way: the first 12 are reserved for the vinyl version while the last 13 make up the digital. The two halves aren't terribly different—both offer the kind of consistency we've come to expect from Developer. That consistency is exactly what makes In Pure Form work so well.
This is Developer at his best, with no half-assed moments or by-the-numbers tools. It's all the more remarkable given Sandoval's uneven discography, where functional brutalism often gets the best of him. Here he nails every iteration of techno he tries, from reverb-heavy melodrama to squirming, bass-heavy numbers. On one track we get vocals and what sounds like a saxophone sample, while loose tribal rhythms, dusky Workshop vibes and atmospheres à la Aphex Twin are strewn about elsewhere. There's even a piano near the end.
What those disparate styles have in common is Sandoval's basic formula: powerful percussion, one or two melodic elements and a good sense of dynamics. This makes the LP a fun and consistently exciting ride, even if you listen to all 25 in one go. But the album wasn't quite designed that way: the first 12 are reserved for the vinyl version while the last 13 make up the digital. The two halves aren't terribly different—both offer the kind of consistency we've come to expect from Developer. That consistency is exactly what makes In Pure Form work so well.
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Published /
Tue / 22 Jul 2014 -
Words /
Andrew Ryce -
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Tracklist /
01. In Pure Form 01
02. In Pure Form 02
03. In Pure Form 03
04. In Pure Form 04
05. In Pure Form 05
06. In Pure Form 06
07. In Pure Form 07
08. In Pure Form 08
09. In Pure Form 09
10. In Pure Form 10
11. In Pure Form 11
12. In Pure Form 12
13. In Pure Form 13
14. In Pure Form 14
15. In Pure Form 15
16. In Pure Form 16
17. In Pure Form 17
18. In Pure Form 18
19. In Pure Form 19
20. In Pure Form 20
21. In Pure Form 21
22. In Pure Form 22
23. In Pure Form 23
24. In Pure Form 24
25. In Pure Form 25
Washington DC
Berlin
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