Torus - Torus EP

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  • If you know Oli Marlow and his Sonic Router blog's tastes, it's no surprise the first release from his eponymous label would be something amorphous and synthy. Long a champion of skweee and other between-genre bass music experiments, Marlow disseminates a cassette from Dutch producer Torus, whose beats indeed sound something like hollowed-out, drugged-up skweee, the irreverent playfulness replaced by a sombre naturalism borrowed from LA producers Shlohmo and Teebs. "Blurred" plays the part perfectly, the pitter-patter of improvised percussion, crackling basslines and melodies that sound just slightly out of place. It's also really, really pretty. "Cavemonsters Are Kind" gets by on a torturously slow pendulum swing suspended above a valley of reverb and sub, while "Forests" slows things down even further to the point that you can't tell if the rhythmic elements are making a beat or are just happy accidents. It's striking how much Torus' music leans on the sub-bass but never feels imposing: a track like "Monday Masses" feels skeletal and looming all at once, filling in the empty white space with invisible low-frequencies that we feel but don't really hear. Things come to a head with the short and hallucinogenic "Vocaldonuts," which filters a sample through an amniotic heartbeat to create the most conventional thing here. We're treated to two remixes from SR favourites, who seem to try to contextualize Torus' floaty music into something more recognizable. Belgian producer Dynooo contorts "Forests" into a crunchy, industrial thing, like a techno track bunched up and crinkled, while British bit-crusher Slugabed expands the majestic purview of "Vocaldonuts" into something audacious and, of course, neurotically twitchy.
  • Tracklist
      01. Blurred 02. Cave Monsters Are Kind 03. Forests 04. Knocks 05. Monday Masses 06. Vocaldonuts
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