パンキッシュな衝撃を放つGiant SwanのRobin Stewartが、ブリストルの血脈に流れるダブ・ロジックを電子音楽の最深部で解体・再構築。

ブリストルを拠点に、インダストリアル・パンク的な熱量でフロアを圧倒してきたGiant SwanのRobin Stewart。彼がソロ名義RS TangentとしてTHE TRILOGY TAPESから放つ本作は、かつての過剰な装飾を削ぎ落とし、ダブ・テクノの本質を物理的な衝撃として表現している。

90年代に確立された様式美としてのダブ・テクノではなく、ヴィンテージなダブ・レコードが持つ「身体に直接響く感覚」を追求。緻密に配置された点描のようなリズムと、変幻自在な音響工作が、倉庫の奥深くで鳴り響くような没入感を生み出す。「Stomach」では、不規則なキックが幻覚的な音の渦に沈み込み、工業的な金属音や断片化されたヴォーカルが予期せぬ方向へと聴き手を突き動かす。一方、「Compact」では巧みなプロセッシングにより、キックの響きが単なる打撃音を超えた触覚的な刺激へと昇華されている。

表題曲「Crinkle」では、残響の連鎖をそのままリズムへと凍りつかせ、幾重にも重なる幻影のようなポリリズムを形成。ヴァイナルという物理的なフォーマットだからこそ味わえる、空間を震わせる低域の脈動と、頭上を掠める幽霊のような声が交錯する。実験精神と機能性が高次元で融合した、時代に流されない強固な記録。

A1. Stomach
A2. Compact
B1. Toboggan (IYNLID)
B2. Crinkle

"Robin Stewart regrows dub techno from the seeds on 'Crinkle', following 2023's 'When A Worm Wears A Wig' with a set of twisted warehouse melters that apply advanced dub logic to pointillistic technoid rhythms. RIYL Rhyw, Peder Mannerfelt or Rrose.

Think about dub techno for a moment and it's not hard to imagine a very specific aesthetic - something that began with Basic Channel in the '90s and plateaued only a few years later. This was just one application, though; not only has techno mutated in the last few decades, but there's more to dub than bussed tape echo and snatched stabs. Bristol-based Stewart goes back to the source here, considering the way his favorite vintage dub records hit physically, not just how they sound on the surface. It's not an easy mental leap to make, considering the trade up you need to make when you prioritize soft, warm bass throbs over the kind of ear-bleed kicks you'd expect find knocking the mortar from the Berghain brickwork every weekend. When does techno stop being techno altogether, exactly?

So 'Stomach' is a genuine surprise, leaving Giant Swan's punky, maximalist swagger as a distant memory. The off-grid, lolloping kicks are interesting enough on their own, but it's how Stewart treats them that makes the track pop, sinking them in swirling, lysergic goop rather than drowning them out with rinsed tape FX. The oscillating, demonic subs that heave just beneath the surface don't muddy things completely, they crack the sunroof on the top end, letting the industrialized foley clanks and hoarse vocaloid stutters boot us towards an unexpected destination. And although 'Compact' is more trad on the surface - a gated peak-time roller, natch - Stewart's canny processing makes the kicks tickle more than they thump. Everything builds up to the title track, where Stewart freezes mind-rinsing dissociated echo spirals into their own rhythmic forms that push against the relentless double-time thuds, weaving phantom polyrhythms out of thin air while spectral voices whisper overhead.

Don't sleep on this one - just make sure you've got Adrian Sherwood's shrooms plug on speed dial first." - Boomkat