- Plankton's Edding EP reminds me of the first two EarToGround records: fairly vanilla concept-wise, but devastatingly effective in terms of composition. Techno at its most straightforward and brutal. All four tracks―five if you buy mp3s―are built around concrete-solid kick, bass and hat combos, layering in sparse chords and stabs only after these cornerstones have been laid. In the title track, a short, steely motif slowly unravels, adding just as much to rhythm as it does to melody. Mark Broom's remix is more benign, morphing the stabs into a lighter skip and introducing some variation into the thumping percussive substrate.
"Sloping" sports the same kind of visceral low-end throb as Slam's "Maffaking" or Joris Voorn's "MPX_309." But here, the track is haunted by delayed, spectral chords. "Kaloff" and "Turnall" opt for a more loping cadence, though by any measure they're still incredibly powerful. In the former, there's little in the way of traditional melody. Instead, metallic-sounding slashes multiply throughout, incrementally building to restrained peaks. In the latter, a triangle and tinny synth whirl about entrancingly before dropping suddenly away. Their absence renders the remaining duration somewhat plain, but it's the only truly disappointing stretch on a solid EP.
Tracklist A1 Edding
A2 Edding (Mark Broom Remix)
B1 Sloping
B2 Kaloff
Digital: Turnal