- Pan-Pot are among the most consistent purveyors of minimal-slanted tech house around. But they've hardly achieved this by blurring genre boundaries or anything like that; instead, they stick to their guns—exactingly bumping grooves powered by simple, excellently produced hooks—and not much is different with Captain My Captain. So now, do we judge it against their current body of work, or against everyone else's? The thing is, the second is pretty straightforward: it's yet another clutch of tracks which stray close to being "perfect," in some kind of technical, non-subjective sense. The first, though, is a bit more of a complex matter, and more useful critically, because the greater closeness of comparison offers precision.
It's also because there is plenty of notable variation throughout their oeuvre, and it's not like they're completely repeating themselves here. The title track has lyrics that support the music underneath (or is that the other way around?) on some subconscious, undefinable, but very real level in the same way as "Charly," but rather than pushing us inexorably through rising paranoia, they navigate us through smooth waves of trance-like blue. Up a gear for "Black Horse Down," with percussive blippery halting every so often for four dense, commanding chords that descend upon us before slamming the track back in. You wish it would happen again, and again, and again... but these guys are too clever for that, and you're left wanting. "Bad Photocopy," meanwhile, is definitely one of the, if not the, most high energy tracks they've released, firmly in techno territory with a smoky Stroboscopic Artefacts-type feel: rough cracks, vibrating bass and an urgent lead with the filter opening and closing with intent.
That's the verdict description-wise, but rating-wise? Well, these tracks at the more classic end of Pan-Pot's catalogue. Classic, strong and timely. This approach, then, may not have the kind of slap-round-the-head surprisingness to elevate the tracks to the very top of either the Pan-Pot pile or the charts, but certainly has the buoyancy to enable them to float very respectably in both.
Tracklist A Pan-Pot feat. Cari Golden - Captain My Captain
B1 Pan-Pot - Black Horse Down
B2 Pan-Pot - Bad Photocopy Of A Big Saw