Clement Meyer - Unconditional Unknown

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  • It's hard to know which is more useful to a producer of dance music—control or grace—but a sufficient store of both can make for a formidable combination indeed. It's rare too, if you think about it—especially to the degree exhibited here by the Frenchman Clement Meyer. "Unconditional Unknown" showcases Meyer as a brisk technician (control) who also knows how and when to get out of his own way to let a track breathe and reveal itself in time (grace). The A-side inventories a long list of ideas—lots of little rhythmic ticks, spastic-splash snares that come and go, arpeggios articulated in different tones that circle to vertiginous effect. But what could easily come off as an overly studious and dense form of electro disco unfurls with an impressive sense of ease, which makes it ripe for both a warehouse unhinged in darkness or somewhere outside in the sun. "It's Only Progress 'Till the End" is less striking but marked by a similar sense of movement as it cycles through variations on a more clomping and contemplative mood: steely and a little nervous, but also spacious and chill. A pair of remixes—Pherox on "Unconditional Unknown" and Raudive on "Progress"—speed the material up to more bumptious and kinetic but less distinctive ends. Neither breathes, and Meyer shows so adeptly, breath becomes them both.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Unconditional Unknown A2 It's only progress 'till the end B1 Unconditional Unknown (Pherox Remix) B2 It's only Progress 'till the end (Raudive Remix)
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