- Tommy Four Seven's label returns with a biting drum & bass and techno fusion EP.
- If I were to be intentionally glib, I would say that Torn's new EP was practically made to be played in the green-hued HÕR room. Fast, sleek and almost outrageously heavy, it's a clever fusion of drum & bass and techno that sounds like, if not the distant future, then very much the now. It's the first release on Tommy Four Seven's 47 label since the first days of the pandemic, and it makes for a striking, adventurous return, taking the outfit's penchant for hard-hitting techno to extremes of 150 BPM and beyond.
The thing is, Torn's EP would be almost uncomfortably bludgeoning if it weren't so funky. 47028 kicks off with "Tantrum," which starts off like drum & bass—glints of breakbeat flash like the sound of a cleaver on the sharpening block—before launching head-first into its 150 BPM kick pattern. The background of the track is littered with ominous groans and cowbells reverbed until they sound ten feet tall. It's techstep techno, like a four-to-the-floor version of Konflict's "Messiah," and it's deeply satisfying any way you cut it, especially with the fragmented breaks that tumble in every once in a while.
The other two tracks sprint into drum & bass tempo. "Grief" is highly technical and precise, with Torn tossing up then knocking down bits of breakbeats like a whack-a-mole game—the kind of percussive wizardry that could have a dancer zoning out mid-party to try and focus on what's happening. "Ferrum Wood," on the other hand, is uncharacteristically sprightly, built on a broken kick drum pattern EQ'd to feel round and hard like a punch to the sternum. Even with that hulking foundation, though, Torn practically pirouettes through the bars, as blown-out breaks flash by in mini-explosions. Pyrotechnic and agile, Torn comes at hard-as-nails big room techno from a refreshing new angle.
Tracklist01. Tantrum
02. Grief
03. Ferrum Wood