Operating under his variant aliases Lusine, L’usine and Lusine ICL, Seattle-based electronic producer Jeff McIlwain has spent the last fifteen years amassing an impressive discography on labels including U-Cover, Isophlux and Hymen. While he’s most readily been associated with the post-IDM scene, notably he’s been one of the few producers operating in that sphere who’s been successfully able to adapt to wide range of different musical styles and moods without ever overreaching himself. This latest EP on Ghostly International ‘Arterial’ certainly highlights those aforementioned skills, with the four new tracks collected here managing to cover a broad range of territory in just 20 minutes. Title track ‘Arterial’ kicks things off with a shivery wander through IDM-laced hip hop that sees fat crunching MPC kicks providing a warm bottom-end for wavery synth pads and glittering electro sequences, as the entire track builds into a majestic swell of layered arpeggios towards its end.
By comparison ‘Eyes Give In’ offers up what’s easily this EP’s most dancefloor-centred moment, sending garage-tinged broken-house rhythms and fat bass drops rolling against a backdrop of smeared-out synths and flitting, cut-up vocal hooks that lends a mesmerising edge to the flexing propulsion. Elsewhere, ‘Quiet Day’ drops the pace right down, sending slow polyrhythmic beats and glittering synth arpeggios rolling beneath a slightly eerily detached sounding male and female pop vocal harmonies as icy buzzing synths usher in a wander into moodier New Wave territory, before ‘Forks’ sees digitally manipulated vocal elements continuing to provide a colourful melodic foreground as footwork edges snares flex back and forth against against dark swelling bass synths. Another characteristically excellent outing from Lusine that sees McIlwain continuing to navigate a broad range of moods and styles with masterful ease.
