- As its title suggests, Powell's first EP since Sport tries something new. His debut album's more characterful touches—the skits, the vocal guests—are gone. So are the sampled guitars that, processed and looped, have helped conjure the sense that Powell's tracks are post-punk songs engaged in gruesome self-taxidermy. (Think the closing scene of György Pálfi's Taxidermia.) Powell's music has always been sparse, and now it's positively skeletal.
Three bone-dry synth studies, threaded through the EP, set the uninviting tone. His innovations give engaging results elsewhere, even if there are some kinks to iron out. "Freezer," for instance, takes ages to get somewhere—it's only in the closing minute that the jangling post-punk drums, synth arpeggios and scraps of electrical fizz and frazzle work productively together. On "Dogs On Acid," disjointed grooves and an aimless burbling bassline fall on the wrong side of abstruse. On the EP's better tracks, Powell focusses on vivid bass sounds. "Wormhole"'s is a whomping dubwise thing that, alongside rolling percussion, makes for a kind of vacuum-sealed UK hardcore. On "The Bust," a quivering low-end pulse helps pull together the brittle percussive elements. Perhaps the hardcore connection isn't just coincidence—the track's vocal sample is from Manix's "Stupid Dope Mix (Pt.1)," released on Reinforced Records in 1991.
Tracklist01. Teddy
02. Freezer
03. Wormhole
04. 97
05. The Bust
06. Dogs On Acid
07. Electric Sheep