Various Artists – Facticity (Infrastructure New York)

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New York-based techno producer David Sumner (aka Function) originally founded the Infrastructure New York label alongside partner Ed Davenport (aka Inland) back in 1998 before putting it on hiatus during 2005 to focus increasingly on their activities with the then burgeoning Sandwell District collective. Following Sandwell District’s dissolution in 2011, 2014 saw them reactivating Infrastructure New York, and since then they’ve been responsible for an impressive output of releases from artists including Regis and Silent Servant. Having accelerated back up into full gear, this unmixed compilation ‘Facticity’ offers up something of a statement of intent from the label, collecting together 15 tracks by key artists, label colleagues and new faces.

As you’d expect, there’s a heavy focus upon darkly hued and mechanistic techno rhythms in evidence here, with the occasional unexpected departure thrown in. Steve Bicknell’s claustrophobic ‘Passage Through Darkness’ offers up a pretty good taste of the more hard-edged directions being explored here as panicked-sounding synths bleep away urgently against a pressurised wall of snares and kickdrums, in what’s easily one of the most relentless pieces of machine-music on offer here. By comparison, Efdemin’s ‘Kassiber’ gets deep and more atmospheric but no less dark as snare rolls jitter against eerie phased harmonics and prowling bass, ominous keys slowly winding themselves around the gliding streamlined rhythms.

Function & Inland’s collaborative ‘Colwyn Bay’ meanwhile sees shades of light and colour creeping in as clicking broken rhythms venture out against a sheeny backdrop of moody synth swells that suggest a meeting point between post-IDM atmospherics and prog-laced tech-house over an expansive 11 minute long canvas. The occasional ventures away from the dancefloor’s relentless pulse also prove just as intriguing here, with Silent Servant’s ‘End / Optimism’ offering up a sidestep out into dark ambience as static interweaves with what sounds like field-recorded sounds, ringing harmonics and dubbed-out tones in an interlude that sends chills up the spine, before Vatican Shadow’s ‘Swords Over Paradise’ offers up an eerie downbeat wander through tribal thudding rhythms and wandering icy analogue synths that calls to mind Chris & Cosey or Coil’s more melodic and gentle side more than anything else. All up, ‘Facticity’ represents an excellent intro primer for those previously unfamiliar with the thankfully reactivated Infrastructure New York label.

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