- Leeds producer Graphics has a curious ear for atmospherics, as evidenced by his EPs from earlier this year: humid beats that waded through their own manufactured mist. But "Wiping the Eye" was the first thing I heard by Alfie MacGibbon, and what endeared me in the first place. "Wiping" features the same sparse soundscape of naked metal that defines most of MacGibbon's current and forthcoming productions, as if that soporific spore cloud has been lifted. It's a bit of an about face from those first releases, but certainly a welcome one: Half the attraction here comes from the way he lets his slicing percussion billow out into an exactingly constructed echo chamber.
"D Transition" puts a brittle house pattern smack dab in the middle of the techno void, and the result is strikingly lonely, a sluggish euphoria. On the other hand, "Name This" is all about its razor-thin drums that resonate like knives being sharpened. (You wouldn't know that such rigid metallurgy could be so damn groovy.) For MacGibbon's best work yet, though, look to the A-side: "Wiping the Eye" emboldens that surgical steel march with stirring synth grumbles and patchy particulate chords, siphoning the warmth from Autonomic and funneling it into MacGibbon's own world. It's a great start for a new label, and another promising entry in the career of a burgeoning producer.
Tracklist A Wiping The Eye
B 3 Name This
Digital: D-Transition