- Aden's "Whip," one of the first releases on Jimmy Edgar's Ultramajic label, was such a great club track it was hard to believe it was the work of a newcomer. And of course it wasn't. Its polished luster and taut dynamics came from none other than Machinedrum, a chameleonic producer with experience that goes back over a decade. The two Aden EPs are among the strongest material on Ultramajic to date, and now Travis Stewart returns to the label with Tanz (German for dance), which serves functional techno four different ways.
Tanz has a nice ebb-and-flow to it. It starts out velvety, as "Lieb" feels out a chunky rhythm without ever dropping a kick drum. "Grau" is an exemplary Ultramajic track: sharp and plush with some syncopated keys to keep the repetition from getting stiff. "Hass" strips off the excess fat to leave a skeleton of slanting basslines and whooping vocal samples—if we didn't already know Aden was Machinedrum this one would probably give it away. "Hell" is almost prog in scope, wrapping itself in layers of silken synth and spilling over into several discrete climaxes. These tracks are a far cry from Stewart's genre-bending music as Machinedrum, but there's something equally entertaining about hearing him nail something so straightforward.
トラックリスト01. Lieb
02. Grau
03. Hass
04. Hell