- Given the name, it's not surprising that C-lektro's productions are comprised largely of classic electro tropes. But C-lektro 2 doesn't sound hemmed in by the genre's strictures. Like a lot of electronic dance music, electro is often happy to colour between the lines, but there's a palpable personality running through these eight untitled tracks. They use electro as a platform to reach something else, rather than electro being an end in itself. It's difficult to point to specific elements of sound design or structure to account for this, which is the strength of the release. It will sound typical to some, but for electro fans looking beyond homogenous productions, C-lektro 2 is a breath of fresh air.
Many small factors add up to this sense of difference. There's the way the hip-hop-ish, gated snare and drippy filters step atop a simple arp in the A1, the almost glitching tightness of the bass tone in the A2, and the randomised, Cron-esque chiptune bleeps on the A3. Obviously, these traits aren't particularly significant when taken in isolation, but they're cues for uncovering the appeal lying beneath the inhospitable surface of the A-side. This isn't electro made up of harmonic progressions, melodies and bright synth patches. C-lektro gets strange sounds and disjointed rhythms to work together, which makes it especially appealing to DJs looking for spartan beats that jump out of vivid, unusual atmospheres.
The B-side has this in spades, and it offers flashes of melody. The B1 has moaning synth laments that seem to groan with human personality, which are beautifully offset by a rare melodic figure. For something so lean, it's a strangely affecting track. The B2 surprises with its guitar licks and garbled chipmunk speech, while the B3 might be the most spartan track of the lot, featuring little more than ratcheting FX and a dry drum machine. Given the sheer level of detail, these tracks reward close listening, but they also make for memorable moments on the dance floor.
TracklistA1 Untitled 1
A2 Untitled 2
A3 Untitled 3
A4 Untitled 4
B1 Untitled 5
B2 Untitled 6
B3 Untitled 7
B4 Untitled 8