- Jens Kuhn has, of course, been around for far longer than the label he helped found. But it feels like, if anything, the Lowtec take on minimal house—light-footed, subtly skewed—has become even more refined since the launch of Workshop in 2006, with the likes of Workshop 06 and the Angstrom EP for Polyfon ranking among the producer's strongest work. Good news, then, that Kuhn has recently broken an 18-month silence, first with a track on Nonplus compilation Think & Change, and now with this "mini-album" for Ramp sub-label Brainmath.
Sections of the Port Carbon EP are similar to Kuhn's Nonplus contribution, "The Rhythm (Remix 2)"—particularly "Silver," which sports a similarly sultry bassline and quietly discordant synth work. That bass sound returns again for one of the EP's highlights, "Carbon Copy," a stylish minimal roller whose scrunched-up-paper clap is quite the delicacy. Elsewhere Kuns broadens his purview: "Drone One"'s initial momentum is gradually lost in a rich halo of synth atmospherics and icy reverb; a pleasant, if mildly disappointing trajectory. "Joni" is the soundtrack to a drug-tinged dawn, its hi-hats skittering woozily over a coating of syrupy pads. Finally, "Oni Nake" is willfully bizarre at the opening, all stop-start kick patterns and snatches of speech, before coalescing into a clotted 4/4 thud. Port Carbon isn't Kuns' most dazzling work, but give these tracks time and they will steadily grow in your affections.
TracklistA1 Carbon Copy
B2 Drone One
C3 Silver
C4 Joni
D5 Oni Nake