At its heart this is an EP of deep techno. Sounds have been mined from difficult to reach depths for this quartet, sounds nurtured into form whilst being allowed to keep their innate inchoate nature. Superbly immersive music.
030303 has been lying low since last year’s releases. However, don’t mistake a quiet spell for inactivity. Behind the silence the Utrecht imprint has been busy, beavering away over demos to find new machine music and machine musicians. It seems a new homegrown artist has been uncovered.
Caron is a talent born and bred in The Netherlands. A few years back he debuted on Conforce’s Transcendent label with a more recent 12” on Russia’s Mosaique. His latest, Shifted Reality, continues his past explorations into the realms of ambient and techno. Caron’s style isn’t of the hammer and tongs variety, instead it is the atmospheric and warmer side of the spectrum which is the focus. The opener, “Labyrinth”, paints a post industrial landscape, one of broken glass and abandonment. It is a wraithlike work, a beat keeping time amidst a thicket of haze. The piece broods, keeping its distance with lancing bars of angular acid flashing with flint-like menace. “Ambla” comes from an entirely different place. Bleeped aquatic keys are nailed in place by frigid electro rhythms. Around this tight percussion melodic streams ebb and flow to form furrows of IDM depth. In fact this motif of water, fluidity and solidity depending on state runs through the record. “Enlightened” is light and understated, decayed acid lines ghosting in the mists of a twilight dreamscape. The track washes over the listener, synthlines swim, bobbing in a flotsam and jetsam of hi-hats. “Slide” bolsters beats for the finale. Those same spectral backdrops are present, a solid snare cutting through to tether this piece to the colder side of the Shifted Reality range.
It seems this recent burst of activity isn’t an isolated incidence with 030303 having just announced an upcoming 12” from Liverpudlian, now Dublin based, John Heckle. But one record at a time! Caron marks a new road for the Utrecht label. Although the beloved silver box is a feature of Shifted Reality, at its heart this is an EP of deep techno. Sounds have been mined from difficult to reach depths for this quartet, sounds nurtured into form whilst being allowed to keep their innate inchoate nature. Superbly immersive music.
Shifted Reality is available on 030303. [Shop]
