The beats are robust but there is a vulnerability lying beneath the central structure.
To date, Montreal’s Forbidden Planet has played a balancing act with its output. With 12”s by household names in electronics, the likes of D’Marc Cantu and Mono Junk for example, have come fresh faces such as Lnrdcroy Jurg Haller’s imprint isn’t afraid of giving vinyl to unheard talent, and the Canadian label already unearthed some cracking newcomers. It is to yet another less than known that Haller is turning.
Google Annanan and you’ll get some interesting results. A lot of Ann Anans and a Catholic school. But the artist in question will soon surface. Their Soundcloud clocks an impressive number of listens and recent gigs have been had in Berlin. Not much else to go on, bar the three tracks of Lyser sitting on the turntable in front of me. The bruising beats of “124” introduce. Rhythm pounds, splitting itself, fracturing into fuzz. Claps surface, breaking through the thick percussion patterns. But it isn’t the drums on show that elevates this piece. Through those heavy House toms sweeps a bittersweet melody, one with a meandering Detroit undercurrent. Most of you will guess what’s going to happen with “Acidz x2,” the name gives it away. Full carnivore 303 action with a decent wedge of thump. But this isn’t simply wild eyed that same delicate sub-strata that characterized “124” is present. It is this thread of fragility that gives this new artist something different. The beats are robust but there is a vulnerability lying beneath the central structure. “Satin” rounds off this debut. Notes haunt and loom, hi-hats, cymbals and snares cutting through the dense thicket of harmonies.
I get excited when I see a new Forbidden Planet release. Perhaps I shouldn’t be admitting that, but there ya go. But there’s reason why I’m immediately clicking to hear what Haller’s label is putting out, they have a record of quality. Annanan is a top addition to an imprint that has consistently hit the mark, and hit the mark high.
Lyser is available on Forbidden Planet.
