Spicelab - A Day on our Planet CD (Harthouse)
In its second season, Oliver Lieb's Spicelab is in full production
of its fragrant intoxication. Over four long tracks, Lieb stretches the
conventions of Harthouse's trademark teutonic trance to their breaking
point, powering his delicate neon frameworks with a fearsome juggernaut
beat. _A Day on our Planet_'s radiant arabesques glow with a muscular
crimson pulse. The album's strength is sapped by generically futuristic
texturings and the dreaded "clap" effect, but at full speed Spicelab
steamrolls its bugs.
The eerie ambient submersion that begins "Falling" quickly
stumbles into a fluffy workout-tape noodle. The track rights itself far
too late. Scratch. "We Got Spice" quickly corrects the false start,
Lieb's alchemy transmuting a driving chirpy kick into lapping velvet
waves. The title track's breakneck burn erupts into an awesome dancefloor
pyrotechnic, its elements continuously mutating and mingling in an
inescapable whirl. "Planet Spice" hosts a blast-off party, quieting a
dizzily wired funk for a contemplative zoom-out. Oliver raises the ante.
Autechre - Garbage CDS (Warp)
_Amber_'s hefty sidecar suffers in the limelight of its brilliant
parent. "Garbagemx" throws back to _Incunabula_, fueling a teletype samba
with strained metal respiration. "PIOBmx" loops machinery chant under a
mournful minor riff, paving the way for "Bronchusevenmx" to recapture
_Amber_'s intimate ghost in the spaces between horsehooves' clatter and
resonant liquid glass. "VLetermx" loses the golden thread again in
endless rows of Glassian repetition.
_Garbage_'s flawed facets reflect much of _Amber_'s mystic shine,
but the light here is considerably dimmer.