The tracks all meet the ear with familiarity but refuse to sit happily in stylized pigeonholes. Instead, Iron Blu has cherry-picked, taking related elements and marrying them in a ceremony of armchair and dancefloor electronics.
I was chuffed to be asked, couple of months back, to make a mix for Flight Recorder. I’ve been listening to the Newcastle label since its early days. Arguably it’s a modern cosmic style that has characterized the imprint, artists like Emile Strunz, Anton Miaovvi and Kid Machine having all featured on wax. But other genres have been explored, the deep scores of Alessandro Parisi, the Techno of Cottam, the serrated House of Perseus Traxx. It is a Chicago shadowed electronics that the label is now returning, this time with the boss, Iron Blu, taking the reins for a 707 infused EP.
Echoes of British IDM radiate from “Secret Silence.” Bass and beats introduce the piece before texture is layered. Flowing chords curve, bending into themselves. The track has a richness, one which slowly builds amidst peppered percussion. “To The Bone” is a meatier encounter. Bold bars are central, thick slabs of bass met by snapping snares. The flip maintains that same weight laid down in “To The Bone,” but the heavy basslines are countered by spiraling synth. The track has a very 90s quality to it. This nostalgic retrospection permeates the entire EP until the “C-Saw,” the closer being a slow and smooth cut.
Science Probe Vessel blurs the borders between House and Techno. Pads and rhythm patterns recall Chitown and New York whilst harmonies come from the early days of English electronics. The tracks all meet the ear with familiarity but refuse to sit happily in stylized pigeonholes. Instead, Iron Blu has cherry-picked, taking related elements and marrying them in a ceremony of armchair and dancefloor electronics.
Science Probe Vessel is available on Flight Recorder.
