- When I reviewed The Bookbinders EP, a mini compilation released last year on meandyou., I described the music as "giving little away but possessing a strange magnetism." I've not yet found a better way to explain the odd charm of the Manchester label, whose releases vary in style but all have the same mysterious X factor. Judging by the Aramaic EP, crew members Juniper—known for appearances on Smallville, Nous, Underground Quality, and others—have that X factor in spades.
The best stuff happens on the A side. "Indigo Children" bounces along at an unexpected 138 BPM, and its crisp drums and arpeggio scrawls recall the sleek propulsion of Detroit techno. But there's something ominous lurking underneath, hinted at in the odd burst of abyssal reverb, and in the droning note kept low in the mix. A deft arrangement keeps these two moods in precarious balance, a trick repeated on the lower-tempo "Life Source Negative," where clipped chords and a fulsome house groove are pitted against wafts of UFO melody. Dominating the track is a looped voice much like that in Kassem Mosse's immortal Workshop 12: indecipherable and tonally ambiguous. Juniper have previously released on Mosse's label and, in its obliqueness and clever use of limited materials, the whole EP has a Mosse feel.
The resemblance is strongest on B side track "Edicts of Ashoka," whose low-slung groove and hypnotic arp make for the EP's most straightforward track. "Crystal Analysis," gets weirder again. Fidgety arps suggest anxious energy, but the beat framing them is dead calm—another of those subtle contradictions you can never quite resolve.
TracklistA1 Indigo Children
A2 Life Source Negative
A3 Infinite Dub
B1 Edicts of Ashoka
B2 Crystal Analysis