Three years on from his ferocious 2008 debut album ‘Like A Hurricane Made Of Zombies’, this follow-up collection from Manchester-based breakcore The Teknoist (real name Miike Hayward) ‘Trainwreck Magnetism’ sits somewhere between a remix compilation and an artist album, with seven reworkings of other artists collected alongside five new solo tracks and collaborations. Far from coming across as a disjointed listening experience however, the resulting tracklisting flows beautifully whilst also managing to nicely capture the broad diversity of Hayward’s take on the breakcore genre, as well as the occasional unexpectedly tranquil and serene moment. In many senses, perhaps also the diverse nature of the artists receiving the remix treatment here has challenged Hayward to step away from the stylistic preconceptions of the genre, particularly when approaching the work of artists from outside the traditional breakcore scene. Either way, it’s certainly an extremely varied and consistently gripping ride.
If the opening remix of Mu-Ziq’s ‘Siege Of Antioch’ sees Hayward leaning towards the crystalline, IDM-edged side of things as a juddering backbone of steel-edged breakbeats slowly rises up out of a shimmering landscape of frigid, refracted-sounding synths and smeared out pads, by contrast his reworking of King Cannibal’s ‘Aragami Style’ gets considerably dirtier and more dancehall driven, sending cut-up ragga yells ricocheting back and forth against a swaggering backdrop of Bug-esque sub-bass, face-slicing snares and detuned shortwave radio samples. Elsewhere, there’s a crunching tribute to fictional metal band Dethklok on ‘Dead Unicorn’ that sees sludgy thrash metal riffage and ‘Metalocalypse’ samples being pushed through all manner of pitchshifting before settling down into a head-drilling gabber slam, before ‘Prototype For A Ninja Necromaniak’ almost calls to mind the RZA gone breakcore as obscure martial arts movie samples give way to what’s easily one of the most twisted pieces of dancefloor carnage I’ve heard this year as hideously pitch-shifted synths snarl and tear their way through the mix. While for the most part things hammer along at a breakneck pace here, ‘Tears And Fruit Cocktail’ offers up an oddly unexpected oasis of calm, dropping the beats almost completely in favour of an ambient glide through thin-sounding synth harmonics, broken rhythmic fragments and eerie spoken samples that’s easily one of the biggest highlights here. A consistently impressive follow-up album from The Teknoist that’s well worth seeking out.
Chris Downton
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