- Touchin' Bass trio MKFN have some obvious precedents. Their coal-black atmospheres and attitude of scientific enquiry bring to mind Emptyset, while the broken but compelling rhythms recall Fis. MKFN's innovation is to bring these ideas into contact with sleeker techno forms, giving dance floor DJs a chance of deploying them without losing the beat entirely.
This sound was outlined on last year's Substrate EP; its follow-up, This Divide, is more refined, swapping a weighty industrial thud for more graceful, elliptical beats. On "Terrain" and "Inland," the drums are bone-dry and deathly sharp, and a rattling echo trails each hit, as if it's trying to escape the grid. Ominous drones and minor-key pads drift by in the background, with the occasional dive-bombing bass tone for emphasis. Both tracks are well executed, but without the more freeform structures of an artist like Fis the whole thing can start to feel staid, the atmospheres relentlessly monochrome. "Stasis" cranks down the tempo and switches to three-time but suffers from a similar flaw. Only "Somewhere Here" has a much-needed smudge of colour, with dub-techno chords shimmering prettily in the distance.
TracklistA1 Terrain
A2 Somewhere, Here
B1 Inland
B2 Stasis