Clouth threads precision engineering through moments of volatility, never allowing complexity to collapse into clutter. Each track on Cicada feels both autonomous and interlocked, contributing to a broader arc that moves from propulsion to release.
A finely tuned system of neatly assembled contrasts
Rob Clouth returns to Max Cooper’s Mesh imprint with some of the most intelligent, face-forward techno gear on the market. Cicada his second for the label, leans into pounding funk, tectonic-shaking electro, and break-laced bangers, stitched together with razor edits that land like sweet and salted butter—rich, precise, and indulgently sharp.
Opener and title track “Cicada” launches like a shuttle already at Mach 4, its propulsion immediate and unwavering. Yet this isn’t brute-force for its own sake; there’s a sense of outer-limits mischief at play, a calibrated wildness. Hazardous breaks skitter and snap beneath tightly coiled sixteenth-note motifs, while subtle surges and drop-offs carve out negative space with real intent. When the low-end finally opens up, the payoff is colossal—32 bars of pure, distilled pressure that feel like the sum of a long, obsessive journey through electronic form.
“Gummy Cluster” follows with a more elastic energy, its bassline bouncing and contorting in bi-polar tension. The track feels alive at the edges—frantic glides rake from top to bottom, textural flickers teasing the threshold of abrasion without ever tipping over. It’s both groovetastic and feral, a controlled demolition of funk that never loses its footing.
“Grefuser” might be the most arresting moment here. Clouth dissects micro-detail with surgical care, tearing apart rhythmic fragments only to reassemble them into something uncanny and animate. Staccato chimes clash and coalesce, each vying for prominence, yet resolving into a strangely unified organism—restless, intricate, and quietly overwhelming. Closer “Core” offers a decompression. Air, space, and restraint become compositional tools, with rhythm loosening its grip. It exhales rather than drives, a measured drift that lets the EP’s intensity dissipate into something weightless, suspended, and quietly profound. It scatters, tears, and rips itself into a cohesive tensile wholeness of delight.
Taken as a whole, the record operates as a finely tuned system of neatly assembled contrasts, deliciously balancing force with finesse at its every turn. Clouth threads precision engineering through moments of volatility, never allowing complexity to collapse into clutter. Each track feels both autonomous and interlocked, contributing to a broader arc that moves from propulsion to release. It’s a body of work that rewards close listening as much as physical immersion—detailed, deliberate, and executed with a confidence that places it firmly at the absolute heart of the outer edge of contemporary electronic craft.
Cicada is available on Mesh. [Bandcamp]
