Behind the title, Orbiting Souls, is the artist (Rutter alone here) reflecting on a friend’s demise, projecting a sense of surroundedness by souls departed.
B12. A name resonating with myths of the recent past. Along with the likes of The Black Dog, Baby Ford, and other lesser lights (e.g. LA Synthesis, lately spotted here), B12 is redolent of a strain of UK Techno emergent in Warp‘s early-’90s purple patch; their albums, Electro-Soma and TimeTourist, still feted. After a hiatus at the end of the 90s, Mike Golding and Steve Rutter briefly re-emerged in 2007 with live shows, new material and archival releases, before retreating once more. Recently renascent, a new EP, Bokide 325 squeezed out of them by Soma, now another comes late in the November day courtesy of Delsin.
Behind the title, Orbiting Souls, is the artist (Rutter alone here) reflecting on a friend’s demise, projecting a sense of surroundedness by souls departed. A portrayal of polar opposites—bespeaking an inner space of sadness and desolation, while acknowledging an outer space of wonder and energy, tracks like “Nautilis Horizon” and “Universal Alignment” sound like classic ’90s B12; neither retro nor dated, rather pure and timeless with strings and pads of deep and doleful cast swirling over 909/808 states. This beat is not so much Techno-tronic as a Detroit spin on a downtempo bent with an AI Warp factor.
Orbiting Souls is available on Delsin.
