- In an industry with few second acts, Robert Babicz is that rare beast - a survivor. After a string of mad and successful acid trax releases as Rob Acid in the nineties, Babicz has since reverted to his real name and recast himself as a reliable generator of funked up minimal techno. His run of solid releases continues with this latest 12" on Danish label Out of Orbit, home of bright young things Martinez and Trentemoeller.
'Cristal Garden' is an insistent loop of videogame notes which energise an array of noises and spacy melodies. Expect to hear this rocking a somewhat twisted floor mid-set soon.
'Little Moon' has housier percussion and a pushing feel with mad scientist pads and effects raising the tension around a bassline of deeper fibre. One for later intelligent floors.
But it's 'The Cloudpainter' that truly shines: funky rattling percussion, a subtle bassline, stabs of a silvery-phased pad - this track is one to keep the smiles on the faces of demanding punters in the final stretches of the night.
Triple-O have been making forward thinking house for a while now but it's nice to see them avoiding another obvious pass at currently fashionable electrohouse or minimal. Already home to a roster of rising stars, they must be well chuffed to have an old hand like Robert Babicz on board moving their sound in new directions.