J. Tijn - Flat

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  • As the press release for West Norwood Cassette Library's latest EP proclaims, J Tijn can "make it bang." To date, the Londoner's two appearances on Untold's techno label, Pennyroyal, and his handful of remixes for Turbo have revelled in neo-gabber square wave kicks and percussion that sounds like a waste disposal with a fork stuck in it. But his first outing for WNCL shows a subtler side, his austere techno mellowed by—whisper it—melodies. Granted, it's not exactly a singalong, but "Flat" and "U U U" both stitch their clanking rhythms to something genuinely tuneful. For the former it's a pushed-to-distortion bassline that smacks of Delroy Edwards, the L.I.E.S. atmosphere accentuated with a lightly swung, heavily flanged hi-hat. The latter is Basic Channel via UK garage, its stepping drums giving swagger to a fog of synth stabs. When they burn off after the breakdown, leaving just the snare whipping over buoyant kicks, "U U U" could be a Karenn track. What's perhaps most noticeable on Flat is J Tijn's improved production values. Earlier releases had a tendency to collapse under their own grittiness, but here he finds a balance between distortion and a mixdown that's actually sweet to listen to. It's most apparent on "Cuthbert, Dibble and Grib," a slice of Robert Hood-style techno whose synth lines plait together over the sparest of rhythms, and where everything, from the hats to the kick drum, is rendered in HD. It's not all so clear, though—"Decimated#4" is, true to its name, an orgy of noise, where the percussion only just keeps time and every new element ramps up the sense of overdrive.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Flat A2 Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub B1 U U U B2 Decimated #4
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