Fragmented vocals and circuitry chatter like rainforest fauna, against an off kilter kick. A funk of bubbling bulbous bass wobbles, metallic clank, Linn drum pop and percolate. Boom like a bashed empty crude barrel. Sonics sweetened by serene strings and cool alien jazz chords. Listening to Mechine`s opening three missives I was imagining Beaumont Hannant alighting on Being & Claude Young’s Mune. 

These excavations from Sven Rieger AKA SVN`s archive are all classy examples of energetic electronica. Sometimes unhurried, sometimes racing, electro. Esq-1-cr8000 (Guitar Mix) is an acidic express.  Alpha 1.1 Copy counters swirling synth pads with tribal toms. Slowon X-Edit could be Carl Craig`s Nitwit rebuilt from broken clockwork. A stop-start E-dancer. The mid-tempo Slowon Edit 02 eschews any melody, in favour of subtly shifting dynamics. Full of mind-massaging, hypnotic healing 303 flotation fractals, The Mechine’s Frequency Memory shuffles its way to an altered state.

These tracks are not packed with of hooks for ravers, but instead expertly built beats for the connoisseur. They are cohesive groovy wholes formed from seemingly out-of-sync sequences. Elements in oblique orbits, eventually coalescing into a sums that are more than their parts. Deliberately grainy, and kinda lo-fi, in the same way that Aphex` Selected Ambient Works is. Trading polish and a big room hit, for something understated and timeless. 

SVN`s Mechine is available through Going Good. Pre-orders don’t seem to up yet, but hopefully they’ll be there by Friday, July 3rd, when Bandcamp are once again waiving their fees – furthering their support of artists and labels in these testing times.

Reference Links

Beaumont Hannant

Mune

Nitwit

Selected Ambient Works