- While classic electronic styles are back in vogue, few old school-influenced producers are plunging the same grainy depths that veteran Fanon Flowers's music inhabits. The fact that Flowers has 15 years of experience as a producer means that his sound has developed organically, and doesn't sound like the new wave's hurried attempt to recreate the past.
"Kush" is raw and gritty, its unpredictable construction and execution displaying an admirable disconnect with digitally-powered precision. The title track and "Kush Drums" feature acid lines spurting and drizzling all over heavy, gained drums and grimy, shuffling percussion. Like Phuture's acid excesses cosying up to a somewhat restrained Robert Armani, both tracks tease new life from Chicago approaches.
Flowers goes in a harder direction on the flip; "Acid Survival" is more stripped down, with thunderous claps providing the backdrop for a buzz saw electronic bass that keeps on building. "We are Survivors," meanwhile, sees him bring back his beloved 303, this time integrating menacing gurgles with crashing, ominous cymbals and the kind of bleakly compelling rhythm track that Beltram used to make in the early '90s. Maybe it's time the new school took a leaf from Flowers's well-thumbed, dog-eared book.
Tracklist A1 Acid Kush
A2 Kush Drums
B1 Acid Survival
B2 We Are Survivors