Since Manchester-based duo AnD (real names Andrew Bowen and Dimiti Poumplidis) first emerged back in 2011, they’ve consistently pursued a path aligned to the most brutalist, dark and industrial-edged side of the techno spectrum, placing them in close kinship to the likes of Surgeon and Regis. While they’ve been responsible for a prolific stream of 12” releases on labels including Idle Hands and Repitch though, they only finally released their debut album, the impressive ‘Cosmic Microwave Background’ on Electric Deluxe last year. Twelve months on, these two separate 12” EPs ‘RMX 01 & 02’ offer up a remix companion set that frequently manages to eclipse the source material in terms of pure sonic harshness, no mean feat in itself.
If anything, ‘RMX 01’ offers up the more techno-oriented side of the equation here. Speedy J and Lucy team up under their Zeitgeber alias to transform ‘The Surface Of Last Scattering’ into a epic 13 minute long dark techno monster that slowly emerges from whirring electronics, muted kickdrums and eerie bleeps into a gathering roar of hammering layered rhythms, sinister robot growls and rushing noise, as things gradually build into a massive cyclone of propulsive rhythm before beginning to die away once more. Sleeparchive’s reworking of ‘Power Spectrum’ meanwhile manages to get even nastier than the original as hammering distorted techno rhythms get thrown through violently applied effects, the constant volume jumps and reverbed-out noise stabs calling to mind barking attack dogs, before O/H turn the same track into relentlessly shuffling industrial-edged techno that ends in screamed metal vocals.
‘RMX 02’ meanwhile sees Justin Broadrick under his JK Flesh alias reshaping ‘Non Sky Signal Noise’ into a paranoid blend of stripped back techno rhythms and writhing electro bass that sudden bursts forth into swaggering hiphop rhythms and sludgy metal guitar riffs that even sees acid synths playing at the very edges, before Black Rain’s reworking of ‘Galactic Motion’ takes things down into ominous industrial-edged dub. Dark and uncompromising stuff, with both EPs offering up their fair share of sinister brilliance.
