Techno is getting crowded and, it has to be said, easy with the technology. There are some amazing records coming out, especially under the minimal banner, but it’s becoming more necessary for vision and originality to set aside the great from the good. No change there then, but the debut album from Mark Rutherford and Dave Congreve is not only great but a bar-raising sonic feast which caps Soma’s impossibly great year with a hissing vengeance and instills genuine excitement. No wonder Slam and Weatherall are behind them. The music here is dealt with passion and a love of future-pointed music past and present shines through, like on the extra-terrestrial jazz textures on the single, ‘Why Must’ or punk-funk of ‘Crocodile’. The first two singles aren’t even on here but one blast of the warped space-scuttle that is ‘Flip Flop’ shows that RR have their own path to follow and this is decidedly the first missionon a remarkable space probe. Their frightening potential is maybe best shown on ‘Loops And Boundaries’, where episodic mood swings and emotional melodies sneak in. Again, it recalls classic Weatherall in its simple power. The minimal night-prowl has rarely sounded fresher and more gleeful in its execution. What’s more your dancefloors will shudder. Jawdropping.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: KRIS NEEDS
