DESCRIPTION:
Club Music ( 2014, Diagonal ) - Powell's first 12" for the label since 2012's 'Body Music' arrives a year since his 'Fizz' 12" for Liberation Technologies and a killer for The Death Of Rave - with a couple of scintillating remixes for Ike Yard and Silent Servant in between - to mark his clearest, canniest statement of intent, wrenching ideas twoc'ed from New Beat, Hardcore Jungle, Post-Punk and heavy Electronics into crafty, sidewinding de-rangements as direct as they are considered. It's a properly modernist sound, rejecting staid ideas of melodic and harmonic progression in favour of adventurous, non-linear constructions tacking wayward yet disciplined grooves with smashed synthlines and semi-organic gristle to leave the 'floor panting, bleeding and gurning. 'So We Went Electric' starts up with a patented motorik mix of New Beat grind and leather-bound electronic energy, before EP highlight 'No U Turn' tears the skin off it with a mutant dedication to Nico's legendary techstep label factoring retuned steppers torsion with a phet-clenched No Wave urgency - watch out for the doubled-up breakdown and inverted 2nd drop! However, in terms of sheer lunacy, his 'Maniac' razzer with Russell Haswell is the one, featuring the august mentalist coaxing virulent noise from his modified Devil Fish TB-303 over cut-up drums, honking sax blurts and slicing guitar stabs to sound something like Latin Rascals beaten up by Bill Laswell. In effect, the 'Club Music' EP's a perfect distillation of the manic energy and diversity of Powell's unique DJ sets, and arguably Diagonal's deadliest dancefloor dosage to date : http://bit.ly/1gtsGre