Denver-based leftfield breakbeat / glitch-hop producer Justin Gitlin apparently originally comes from an aggressive hardcore breakbeat / drum and bass background, but this debut album as Cacheflowe on Colorado imprint Nobot Media shows him exploring the sorts of territory more associated with the likes of Prefuse 73, Funkstorung and Jimmy Edgar. Constructed around a fluid fusion of sampled instrumental performances, found sounds and meticulously detailed digital editing, “Automate Everything’ shows Gitlin injecting a visceral bass presence often missing from many similar releases alongside the cerebral gymnastics – indeed, for an “IDM’ affiliated record, it’s the biggest roomshaker I’ve had in my possession for quite some time.
Opening track “AhhHuh?’ offers a taste of the contorted grooves in store, coming across like some mutant fusion of Squarepusher and Jimmy Edgar as massive electro-funk bass drops ripple beneath oddly appropriate dub elements and violent drill and bass rhythmic explosions. Stuttering glitch-electro track “Freq Lovely’ meanwhile strains its way through treacherous processing, curiously comical squelchy synths providing an unusual counterpoint for some treated hi-hats that almost sound like knives being sharpened.
Along the way there’ also a suitably intriguing remix of Gitlin’s father’s band George & Caplin that winds traces of the original’s delicate folk guitars around a deep haze of droning synths and spidery breakbeats, some huge overdriven sub-bass drops rising up in the mix to take the track into more furious territory during its second half, before returning things back to calmer waters. What most immediately impresses throughout is the equal balance on offer here between addictive bass-heavy grooves and headphone-friendly production dexterity – making “Automate Everything’ a debut that easily outdoes the efforts of many more famous names. A stunning debut from an artist definitely worthy of investigation.
