- Technimatic's debut album is supposed to be all about following your inspiration, which for the UK duo means an old-school take on drum & bass. Technicolour & Komatic have already proven their gift for crafting smooth-as-silk rollers, and with Desire Paths they've taken that approach back to the old days, building a rich sound full of horns, strings, pianos and soulful vocals. It's a good match for Shogun Audio, who have been inching towards the pop-friendly corner of drum & bass with every passing year, but it also lacks the label's typical spirit of progression. You can only look so far into the past before it becomes nostalgic, or even reductive, and Desire Paths is on the way there, repackaging old ideas with modern sensibilities.
Of course, that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Technimatic's world of sumptuous orchestration is easy to get sucked into, and they've packed their dense arrangements with little instrumental flourishes. The duo mostly keep themselves grounded, like on the bell-heavy banger "Tectonic" or the gorgeous "Beneath The Skies," which sounds like an old film score rolled up into a drum & bass track. But sometimes Technimatic get carried away—for instance, by taking the plaintive beauty of "Beneath The Skies" and throwing in some cheesy vocals about the power of music. Other tracks, like "Music Is Music," "Imperfections" and "Like A Memory," suffer the same fate, as blandly soulful vocals detract from the otherwise careful arrangements.
The rest of the album redeems those missteps, succeeding especially when Technimatic go for broke. "Night Visions" is a rhapsodic endorphin overload in the vein of the Brookes Brothers' classic "Tear You Down," caning a filtered sample before letting the drums steamroll in for the album's only unrestrained moment. "Lost Times," meanwhile, finishes the LP with a welcome lashing of jungle breaks, hearkening back to the potent formula that the duo nailed with last year's Intersection EP. It's the best example of their Good Looking Records-influenced style, and it ends Desire Paths on a triumphant high note.
For a group obsessed with cultivating the smoothest sounds possible, it follows that Technimatic's album should be impeccably sequenced, too. They break up the flow of rollers with interludes and stylistic diversions, like the finger-snapping rhythms on "Innermost" or the funky guitar work on "Mucky Jeff." Professionally arranged and complete with a feel-good happy ending, Desire Paths is a lot like the Hollywood movies it takes so many sonic cues from: you may need to suspend disbelief to get past the over-the-top emotions, but the high production values make it worth a go.
Tracklist01. Perseverance
02. Beneath The Skies
03. Looking For Diversion feat. Lucy Kitchen
04. Music Is Music
05. Night Vision
06. Innermost
07. Tectonic
08. Mucky Jeff
09. One Way
10. Like A Memory feat. Pat Fulgoni
11. Lost Time