"IF YOU WANT A VISION OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE CRAP 808 SAMPLES STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE- FOREVER"
6. Lowtec/Kassem Mosse – Workshop EP [Laid]
Okay, so perhaps the confusingly named Workshop EP doesn’t qualify as something you might have missed per se, as it’s only just emerged on Dial’s offshoot label Laid, but it certainly could be one you end up missing – it’s come out with minimal fanfare, which is a real shame. Lowtec’s ‘Use Me (Laid Mix)’ is absorbing in an indistinct way, as though the haze of time and distance obscures its longform house feel, but it’s all about Kassem Mosse’s contribution. I’ve become absorbed ever more deeply in his music over the last few months, as the Berlin-based producer has been churning out some fascinating and totally indefinable variations on techno and deep house. His two untitled EPs on Workshop were the most essential things so far to emerge from that consistently impressive label, and the Omar S’ recent reworkings of his languid ‘578’ served to highlight just how well crafted the source material originally was.
Mosse’s trick lies in finding a middle ground somewhere between the old and the new – digital synthesis rubs shoulders against bursts of creaky sounding analogue drum patter, and restlessly propulsive techno dynamics sit almost surprisingly well alongside shattered old-skool electro rhythms. The result is difficult to place, both in time and space: the retrofuturistic pleasuredome feel of this most recent untitled track points directly at early nineties Detroit, all delicately unfurling curtains of mechanistic synth and shattered drum machine beats. But there’s a spaced-out intensity that sits more comfortably within his home city, and halfway through he unleashes a barrage of 808 toms that send the track’s comfortable deep house framework into orbit, before sucking its guts out through an airlock. The overall effect is one of extreme attention to detail and an almost unnerving sense of focus, but both adopted to create music of real emotional heft. It’s an odd tension that drives this beautiful, intangible piece of dance music.
Rory
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