- Timedance still rules the roost when it comes to mind-boggling UK techno.
- Timedance has had a relatively quiet 2022, with only Batu's intricately textured album to its name. But this late-year drop from label newcomer Jabes shows that the UK label still has its finger on the pulse of the country's most exciting dance music. The two-track EP is immediately inviting with its three-dimensional, immersive sound design—an array of glitches, sirens and bleeps on the far ends of the stereo spectrum that evokes some blinking, overwhelming space station control panel. "Ripples" is the one for those mind-bending moments, with a Shepard tone approach (remember that Villalobos & Butch track?) over a broken techno beat. Sounds of hollowed-out metal and other futuristic fabrics rise and rise in seemingly neverending ascent, and just when you think you've reached the top it starts over again, until the pain almost becomes unbearable. There's no climax—just the occasional siren—and "Ripples" leaves listeners, or dancers, writhing in anticipation.
"Body Said No" is more traditional, at least in Timedance terms, with a chunky, fleet-footed beat and another heart-in-mouth build-up. Only this one pays off, with a monstrous bassline and an appropriately suspended-in-midair breakdown. This is top club gear from a label whose impact and influence is obvious even in a year when it's only put out two records.
Tracklist01. Ripples
02. Body Said No