- Ren Schofield was an early leader in the technoise movement, a loose group of producers in America's noise scene who gravitated towards techno. As Container, he makes volatile dance music that feels like it's constantly on the verge of exploding. His debut album of grizzled hardware workouts, simply called LP, felt downright dangerous when it landed in 2011. Since then, techno absorbed this new wave of artists, and noisier sounds became the norm. For his third full-length (once again called LP), Schofield responds by going fast and hard in a way that makes the last two sound reserved.
LP doesn't fuck around. At 27 minutes and seven tracks, it's a barrage of white-hot jams. There's not a moment to breathe, minus one small break in "Remover," but even that's plagued by a high-pitched squall. Where previously Schofield might have let a groove ride out for five or six minutes, waiting for a spark to catch flame, here he turns up the gas high and lets the tracks burn themselves out in quick, brilliant flashes, even more intense than Adhesive, his previous high-water mark. But as brief as LP is, it isn't simple, and there's plenty of variety. Some tracks have a spiky EBM quality, others take on a low-slung, funky feel, like "Peripheral" or the tortured-fax-machine screech of "Calibrate." Schofield goes straight-up techno with "Cushion," a detailed production that's eventually torn up by a searing synth lead.
All of Schofield's records have been great, but seeing him live is an equally crucial part of the Container experience. His sets are abrasive and unpredictable, switching gears at the drop of a pin and feistily tearing into new tracks when you least expect it. LP does a much better job at getting this across than his past records did. The first two LPs laid out pieces of the puzzle, but here they're crudely jammed together into a jarring whole. Each new track lunges to life barely half a second after the last one finishes, which hardly gets less startling even on the tenth or 20th listen. LP might be Ren Schofield's shortest album as Container, but it's also the one that best captures the full elemental force of his music.
Tracklist01. Eject
02. Remover
03. Cushion
04. Absorb
05. Peripheral
06. Appliance
07. Calibrate