Slam – Rotary/Catacoustics

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  • Soma's been at the techno vanguard for more than two decades. As other equally seminal labels have fallen away, failed to evolve or simply struggled to remain viable in a shifting music industry, the Glaswegian imprint has been a bastion of all that's tough and floor-shaking. It's fitting that its owners, Slam, should mark the 400th release with something that epitomises those qualities. The EP comes ahead of an album later this year that, if this is a taster, will be all about glimmering synth lines, rolling basslines and precision-programmed percussion. "Rotary" presumably takes its name from the arpeggios that flow around each other like watch hands, with touches of phasing creating chords from what seem to be single notes. It gives an otherwise hypnotic stomper a dizzying edge. "Catacoustics" is simpler. It has a looping bell line, chattering hats and—fittingly for a track named for the study of reflected sounds—barely audible fragments that sound like the lead line bouncing back, distorted, from a distant wall. With no sign of dipping quality from either label or bosses, here's to the next 400 releases.
  • Tracklist
      01. Rotary 02. Catacoustics
RA