Venezuelan-born and Barcelona-based electronic producer Cardopusher (real name Luis Garban) has spent the last decade steadily moving away from his early breakcore-centred releases on labels like Tigerbeat6 and Peace Off, to the point where these days he’s far more readily associated with subgenres like acid techno and old school electro.
Two years on from his preceding ‘Unsatisfied Customer Jams’ release, this second 12” EP on Super Rhythm Trax ‘Mental Jobs’ sees Garban offering up five new tracks that manage to take in everything from retro New York freestyle electro to icy New Wave atmospheres. On the A-side, ‘Trust Your TV’ kicks things off with an acid electro wander that sees 303 squiggles oscillating against clicking 808 toms and snares, the relentlessly upbeat grooves suggesting some meeting point between Mr Fingers and Planet Patrol.
Indeed, there’s a curiously faded sound to the mix here that calls to mind the sound of cassette-dubbed recordings, something that lends itself perfectly to the icy New Wave synths and propulsive drum machine rhythms of ‘Geotropism’, its moody New Beat aesthetic calling to mind the Dark Entries label’s output more than anything else.
Elsewhere, ‘Never Fade Away’ pushes the freestyle electro grooves to the forefront, offering up a fusion of crystalline synth arrangements, synthesised slap bass and rolling electro breakers’ rhythms that sounds like it could’ve stepped off the soundtrack to ‘Beat Street’, before ‘Microbes’ opts for what’s easily this EP’s most stomping dancefloor excursion as acid 303s ripple against volleys of rolling metallic percussion and harsh, industrial-edged 4/4 kickdrums, suggesting dark EBM given a spiky acid twist. If you’re into your dark, analogue equipment-heavy grooves, you’ll no doubt be pleased by what’s in store here.
