- October and Borai collaborated routinely around 2011, releasing dreamy, Detroit-leaning records that reflected Bristol's newfound love for house music. Borai, in particular, has continued in a similar style (with the exception of a jungle detour for Hotline), but this reunion on Happy Skull takes a new tack. In doing so it echoes October's reinvention on last year's Black Body Radiation. These two vicious, swaggering tracks could be offcuts from that album, though the music's EBM theatrics are toned down to fit a more functional techno framework.
"Necessary Force" is the wilder of the two. Crunchy toms and synth stabs snap angrily at one another in the midrange, while an unexpectedly bouncy bassline supplies the camp factor. The track's sweaty energy made it a highlight of October's spectacular Freerotation set last year; clipped vocal samples supply a blessed cooling breeze towards the end. "Nine Tomorrows" is more restrained. Its growling, two-note bassline takes longer to show its teeth, and only after a shimmering, Kraftwerk-like arp descends and then vanishes is it obvious how sinister the whole thing has become.
TracklistA Necessary Force
B Nine Tomorrows