Ian Pooley, Spencer Parker - Thirty Six EP (2013)

Since meeting in Berlin a few years ago, Spencer Parker and Ian Pooley have enjoyed long and prolific music careers both individually and as a duo, with past releases on Tsuba, Rekids, Cabin Fever and Plus 8 to name a few. Hitting the ground running in 2013, they return for another helping of underground house on Josh Winks Ovum imprint, following up from 2010s Kinderteller EP. Upon hearing the first two and a half minutes of Lerchen und Eulen you could be forgiven for thinking you were in for a potentially punishing workout. A relentless bass line undulates below 808 claps and ride cymbals, which in turn sit alongside a singular chord sequence that serve to lure the listener in. Then out of nowhere, theyre caught off guard with a secondary hook, creating a call-and-response pattern that somehow recontextualizes the entire song as a soulful beach-party groover, reinforced further by effervescent arpeggios and latin percussion. In My Head is a masterful lesson in stripped-back, minimalist aesthetics. Pulsing synths dance around a driving, hypnotic drum-groove, with carefully controlled hi-hat volleys and skittering percussion underpinned by throbbing sub-weight. Mysterious androgynous vocal snippets drift in and out of the mix, swelling and morphing over the chugging bassline stabs that push the song ever forward. This, quite simply, is unadulterated; lose-yourself-at-four-in-the-morning dance floor bliss, engineered with the guttural precision of two techno producers comfortably sitting at the top of their game. Lerchen und Eulen (Radio Slave Remix) is a weird and wonderful trip, with a crisp, solid drum pattern being about the only element of the song, which manages to retain some sense of normalcy. Elsewhere, distant, spaced-out pads orbit around an unintelligible vocal sample, which positively drips with audio effects, to the extent that it appears to be bending its way through time and space itself. The mix is fleshed out with further unidentifiable sonic artifacts and eerie filtered strings, and the reversed chords in the breakdown only add to the off-kilter weirdness. They bring a strange warmth to the proceedings, before the hefty kick-drum/sub-bass combo punches back into the mix and the journey begins once more. Masterful stuff. Huge Support from: Nic Fanciulli, Carl Craig, Matthias Tanzmann, Nick Curly, Catz 'N Dogz, Marc Romboy, Doc Martin, Anja Schneider, Tiefschwarz, D'julz, Layo, Raresh, and so many more!!!!