- As the first follow-up to an album with the clout of Drone Logic, Daniel Avery's new two-tracker is conspicuously understated. Both "Sensation" and "Clear" are techno cuts of a linear, patient nature, and find the Londoner largely using that space to explore textures and rhythmic subtleties. It's all far from the acidic snarls and rich melodies that made Avery's debut LP such engrossing dance music, which—despite nuanced sound design and meaty arrangements—is a gap not fully compensated for on either track.
With its rumble of a beat, trippy synth squiggle and varied pads, "Clear" is the most engaging of the two. The barren expanse of "Sensation" has its own charms: Avery lets a few percussive elements and two ominous, swelling chords fill the void with long trails of reverb, forging weighty paranoia around the drum machine's simplistic bounce. Pay close enough attention and you'll get sucked into the details, but "Sensation" is still the mood piece to "Clear"'s deep hypnosis. Both sides could handle their own in the plateaux of a marathon DJ set or during an early morning second wind, even if they don't stand out by themselves.
TracklistA1 Sensation
B1 Clear