- JoeFarr makes all kinds of techno for all kinds of labels, though it's usually aggressive. Most recently, he's been going down a circuitous, IDM-informed path, which led him to the more experimental strokes of his debut album for Bloc earlier this year. But Leisure System, where Longanimity appeared last year, seems most fitting for his dense and scatterbrained dance music. Spectate is the latest entry in the Berlin label's GRIDLOCK series (meant to highlight "the freaky and the functional"), and it's among the finer records in the JoeFarr discography.
The title track makes the broken beat attack of 2015's "Mormon Shuffle" seem two-dimensional in comparison. Here, Farr lets his intricate, interlocking drum patterns slam together like a game of Tetris running at triple speed, while huge synth leads screech in between. It's a wild ride, though Max Cooper gives Farr a run for his money with a remix that stands as the package highlight. The producers are a logical pairing: both use coiled digital textures, and wrap them around big melodies. For his remix of "Spectate," Cooper goes straight for the jugular, sending out jackhammer melodies so brutally repetitive that you might think the record is skipping when the music peaks.
The flipside has a lot to live up to, and while it is more conventional, it's full of Farr's usual attention to detail. All terse chords and lunging drums, "Comp Killer" plays out like a typical techno banger, but it's corrupted by the same serrated digital noise as "Spectate." "In Focus" rides bold basslines that recall—go figure—Max Cooper in a bad mood. Early JoeFarr tracks made him out to be a producer looking for the biggest, loudest thrills, but Spectate steps toward the deeper and weirder without sacrificing any of his chaotic charm.
TracklistA1 Spectate
A2 Spectate (Max Cooper Remix)
B1 Comp Killer
B3 In Focus