- There's no mistaking Echonomist's "Isolation" for anything other than a tribute to classic Detroit techno, but there's a sort of squirm within it that keeps it from falling into overly polite praise. All the touchstones are there—tightly controlled drums goosed by gravity, metronomic hi-hats that sound like they checked out long ago, a governing mood somewhere between melancholy and mania—but the track (made in collaboration with Dans Mon Salon) shifts through a beguiling series of different movements, always on the way to changing into something other than the sound just established. A roiling acid line serves as a sort of constant, insistent but never fit to fully release—even when the drums open up and go stirringly snare-crazy near the end.
"End of Soul," made with Mike Polar, is slower and deeper but just as shifty. Long trails of echo and a bassline take their time tipping toward dub techno, but there's some shake in it to keep the low-end attentive. Vocal treatments laid over both sides leave a bit to be desired, but Echonomist (a Greek producer named Petros Manganaris) clearly has an ear worth keeping tabs on.
Tracklist A Isolation feat. Dans Mon Salon
B End of Soul (with Mike Polar)