- Asusu has been responsible for some of the Livity Sound label's more conventional thrills. Nocturnal anthems "Sister" and "Velez" both hewed close to techno norms, though their chilly poignancy sounded right at home on Livity. But he's also contributed to one of the label's weirdest tracks, the Pev collaboration "Surge," whose shrieking modular interference can be incendiary on a dance floor. Perhaps this versatility defines his output; his latest 12-inch, which breaks further ground, certainly suggests so.
Inaugurating Asusu's new Impasse label, Serra's title track gets the familiar out of the way first. The skeletal beat is a classic Livity number, across which flicker a succession of greyscale forms, halfway between auxiliary percussion and sculpted white noise. At first it seems too sparse to work, but the litheness with which the shapes dance around one another soon becomes hypnotic. Elsewhere Asusu goes beatless, and though it's a new look for him, he hardly shows it. "Anglo Skin" and "Arrhythmia," both pools of synthetic ambience with occasional ripples of disturbance, recall Vladislav Delay. They're sophisticated enough to transcend pastiche, though, as is "Low Art," whose metallic concussions are filtered through a dense maze of delay plug-ins. All are subtle and engrossing—Asusu, it seems, can't do anything less.
TracklistA1 Serra
A2 Anglo Skin
B1 Arrhythmia
B2 Low Art