Nottingham, UK-based techno DJ Matt Tolfrey has certainly experienced considerable success over the last couple of years, having been billed alongside the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Richie Hawtin and Andrew Weatherall whilst playing virtually everywhere from London’s prestigious Fabric through to dates last year in Australia. Over the last two years Tolfrey has also been building up an impressive roster of artists for his own Leftroom label, with 12″ releases from Marc Ashken and Andre Crom arriving to considerable acclaim over the last twelve months or so. Mixed by Tolfrey himself, Don’t Be Left Out represents Leftroom’s first full-length CD release, and offers up a persuasive overview of the label’s releases to date. After opening with a whispered intro quoting directly from The Man Who Feared God, it’s Marc Ashken’s own ‘Cup Cake’ that kicks off the bpms here with pneumatic snares, undulating sub-bass curves and the slowly building sound of siren-like synth tones; indeed, it’s indicative of the sorts of dark Euro-tinged machine-musik delights on offer amongst this 18 track, 71 minute mix session.
Skoozbot’s remix of Andre Crom’s ‘Bodenturnen Dub’ nicely picks up the baton, introducing electro-funk bass grooves and pinging sonar-like tones, before Lunatik’s ‘Yeahuhuhrighthatsit’ brings in the cut-up deep retro electro/block-party MC vocals that resurface as a recurring theme throughout the entire mix and immediately call to mind Juan Atkin’s Model 500 excursions, in a fairly obvious nod to the Motor City. For the main part however, Tolfrey opts to keep the vocals to a minimum and instead focus on building addictively dark inertia with the grinding machine rhythms in a manner that’s likely to be immediately familiar to fans of the likes of Audion, with Marc Ashken’s closing ‘Root Rot’ breaking the ominous mood right at the end with its vaguely Snax-esque full vocal offering a rare smile along with its cartoon-esque backing. An extremely impressive mixed overview of the Leftroom label’s releases to date that’s sure to appeal to fans of the likes of Ghostly International and M_nus.
Chris Downton
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