Barcelona-based Cardopusher has made a slick, acid-inspired techno album for the heads that have been following him ever since he burst into the scene in 2006.
It was 2008 and I had downloaded an EP called ThisTroy by venezuelan artists Cardopusher and Pacheko. With only seven tracks, both artists managed to put themselves in the map of electronic music in my eyes. Now, after 7 years, lots of EP’s and albums under his belt, Cardopusher has come out of this shell for his first LP for Boysnoize Records. Barcelona-based Cardopusher has made a slick, acid-inspired techno album for the heads that have been following him ever since he burst into the scene in 2006.
Manipulator, as the label sees it, is a kind of tribute album to the underground. However, as much as it bites the style typical of acid-based techno, it manages to slip the spirit of contemporary electronic music with ease, as album opener “Exeptions” testifies. As the beat evolves beyond standard acid, Manipulant begins to unfold early and confidently. Cardopusher is less about throwing you headfirst into the madness than he is into letting you groove to the music until you find yourself lost in the compositions and voice samples slowly seducing you into the unknown. In this respect, Manipulator excels at packing the ambience of the too-early to leave and too-late to drink club, so the only logical option left is to head adrift into the dark corner of the dance floor and bust out the moves. This should be clear, though, if you’ve been paying attention to Cardopusher genre-hopping experiments.
For a while now, Luis Garbán, has been playing around with different sounds (he’s the co-founder of Classicworks record label, inspired by Planet Mu and Rephlex) and Manipulator is a nice synthetic work that manages to pay respects to the elders and bring Garban’s audacious input into the mix.
Manipulator is available on Boysnoize.
