- At their best, Sendai sound like Autechre staggering drunk into a bar and knocking over furniture. "Antennaed" captures this image to a tee: the groove barely holds itself together as it reels around unruly slaps of snare, while curiously tinted melodic scales clatter down a set of crotales like an inebriate down a flight of stairs. "Other Etcs" is even more off-kilter, lumbering chaotically around arpeggios and skittering noise. Ever since 2012's Geotope, Peter Van Hoesen and Yves De Mey have brought out the best in each other. Their recent collaborations have made more coherent techno sound staid, even if it means risking abuse from techno-happy festival crowds.
That said, Cassegrain's side of Konstrukt 2 will surely get more airtime on dance floors. There's a satisfying, tactile snarl to the attack envelope of "Kor"'s central synth—it feels like they've got the hardware jacked directly into the soundsystem as the filter edges open. Burrowing deeper into the wormhole, wisps of reversed reverb offset the percolating churn of synths. "Katran" could function as a set opener or tense bridge builder, thanks to its stately kick pattern. The squirming, multilayered figure that starts the track is the most interesting part, and one can't help but wish this weird impulse was the basis for a wackier finale.
TracklistA1 Cassegrain - Kor
A2 Cassegrain - Katran
B1 Sendai - Antennaed
B2 Sendai - Other Etcs