Various - FPR002

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  • At about the time that I was discussing a new interest in lower tempos on our 2016 in review roundtable, Milo Bragg was recording a mix called Slow Tracks Volume I. Starting with halftime dubstep and crawling towards 110 BPM, it explored the spaces and intensities opened up by these sluggish speeds. The second record on Bragg's Future Primitive label furthers the enquiry with the curatorial flair Bragg is making his trademark. (The first FP release was a neat pair of '90s Leo Anibaldi tracks.) Sourced from three artists of different ages and origins, FPR002 is cool and nocturnal with a sinister opiated undertow. The record opens calmly with "Income," a track from Wolfgang Voigt as Mike Ink that initially appeared in 1995. It's solemn dub techno decelerated to 83 BPM, a tempo all the better to meditate on its swirling motion. Its orderly 4/4 pulse suggests faith in divine dub techno providence, while, on the B-side, two tracks from Murcof are more agnostic. Sourced from 2004's Terrestre album Secondary Inspection, an exploration of traditional dance sounds from the producer's native Mexico, both tracks are skittish balls of hand-percussion, smoky hi-hats and darkside chillout synths. "Secondary Inspection Theme" builds an almost epic momentum over nine-odd minutes. "Botas De Oro" is humbler and somehow more unsettling. The EP's outlier comes in the middle. The gorgeous "ASII100 (Crisis Urbana Edit)" is from the same era as the Voigt production—the archival 2014 cassette on which it first appeared was called Unearthed Tracks 1992-1995. But it belies Welshman DJ Guy's interest in a different electronica pioneer: the tinny pads, nagging melancholy and downtempo shuffle suggest a bedroom study of Aphex Twin. Like the other tracks here, it was hardly inaccessible before this reissue, but Bragg has brought it into a rewarding new context.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Mike Ink - Income A2 DJ Guy - ASII100 (Crisis Urbana Edit) B1 Terrestre - Botas De Oro B2 Terrestre - Secondary Inspection Theme
RA