- After last year's HH3 EP, Bill Youngman returns to Killekill with three dark, intense tracks that lie somewhere between techno and electro. "Centrumcircuit" is the most classically minded of the three, with a textbook electro cadence played out on a whip-cracking 808; what makes it stand out are a beguiling ostinato lead and a layer of chiming synths that smooth the violence of the rhythm like a balm.
The title track takes us down into bunker techno's deepest levels with gritty industrial sonics and a driving 4/4 groove; ambient tones sizzle over the top, leaving an air of burnt ozone. It's as doomy as anything you'll find in techno, but it never beats you over the head, proceeding instead with menacing restraint. (It's easy to hear the connection to Sandwell District, who remixed Youngman's "HH.") "Wespe" is the EP's most esoteric track, and its secret highlight—a maelstrom of swung kicks, hazy drones and analog gurgle. It's claustrophobic, disorienting and not a little evil, but a fine spray of high frequencies offers a semblance of a silver lining, like a halo ringing a rain of hellfire.
Tracklist A Shadent
B1 Wespe
B2 Centrumcircuit