LAG - FIEND EP

MORD have a reputation for releasing def beats from the hardest depths of Techno.

LAG is an up and coming producer with high ping and an attuned ear for what works on the dance floor. In the past Lag has been remixed by the ardent Forward Strategy Group and London-based heavyweight Truss.

‘Fiend EP’ is a four track artefact comprising two original cuts with two remixes by Bas Mooy and Clouds. Cut up vocals feature heavily in his work, creating an obscure and disorientating sonic effect.

Opening track ‘A1 - Kontrola’ utilizes a flirtatious vocal, perhaps attempting to reveal secrets to the listener, yet slickly obfuscated by the cuttings of the samples. Surrounding this earworm of a hook, delayed reverbed kicks blend together with the scraping sound of a wire brush on wood.

The first drop is machine gun kicks supplanted by a correlating snare line.

The repetitive vocal snippet is at the fore, single and half syllables sneaking a female vex into the mix. It is a sexy track, full of pummeling bass and a train track motion that will have dancers pulling shapes all over the tracks.

The Bas Mooy remix on A2 is a more immediate, bass heavy roller. Some of the staccato snares from the original have been toned down into the mix. The vocal treatment is interesting in that the choice of syllables is different to the original. It sounds to me like ‘‘acid, we got blood, go’’

A frenetic, distorted high synth lines courses over the top of the distorted lower bass. The track swaps elements readily, dynamic, rising and falling, never losing that core energy. Tenacious and Ferocious, the Bas Mooy remix is a wily beast, lurid and brooding. The drums are more pounds per square inch. The flickering crackles sound of a Geiger counter mounted in a nuclear power plant.

‘B1 - Trema’ is a more rapacious track from Lag, with broken beat drums and dribbling beats. The powerful rhythm is supplanted by the processed vocal, which seems to me to be saying “Anthony,” although what does it actually say?

These are powerful drums with incisor stabs and snares. Broken and syncopated, a clatter box of high tweets, reminds me of some secret intelligence transference device, sub-sonar, Morse codified and double hashed. I am becoming steadily convinced that electronic music producers are channeling raw data from alien sources.

‘B2 – Trema (Clouds remix)

This ruthless body mover is a more grounded drum track, heavy on the rhythm and counter rhythm, jungle drums cauldron sound, scratches where stabs should be.

The bassline is subtle, keeping the drums chugging along. A rising shriek folded in reverb, cuts out to a pitched down vox, distorted and harder to decipher than the other three tracks. The shimmering procession is redolent of Silent Servant’s pattern building. Clouds really smashes it with this one, a no nonsense techno bomb. Carnal and wicked, it reminds me of the film Zulu and the chanting warriors.

The four tracks are excellent and I look forward to hearing more from Lag in the future.

Fiend EP can be listened to on MORD’s bandcamp page.

https://www.facebook.com/mordrecords

Review for CGNY by Alastair Schwarz