London-based Airsilk is doing his own thing, and despite the name, the rogue electronics he produces are neither airy not silky in their nature. No sir, his productions would be better described as collapsing techno on the verge of rhythmic noise. A couple of appearances on RDL47 Records eventually paved his way to Luke Creed-curated Variance, and after a few appearances in capacity of a remixer the time has clearly come for him to contribute a more prolonged effort to the label's catalogue. Within Glass Chair EP, which is the name of said effort, Airsilk's three tracks are mirrored by reworks from one Harushi Clan—a Londoner as well, brought to public's attention at the end of 2016 with an unusually edgy, as for Planet Rhythm that is, solo six-tracker; within the confines of Planet Rhythm—a place for somewhat more casual techno, it felt a little out of place, but Variance on the other hand, where producers are so outright tough they breakfast with rust-peppered nails, could not have been a better home for his untamed, abrasion-laden sounds.

    Bass-greedy, tumbling kicks start off the 130 BPM opener Mountain Counting, accompanied by the noise-shaped bars, heavily-breathing pads and resonant metallic stabs that shine brightly in crepuscular ambiance of the scene. Harushi Clan's reshape sees a 2 BPM increase in pace, rejection of distortion and a more linear structure of percussion, with 4/4 drum kicks hitting almost twice as hard alongside the panning, textured 16/16 shakers and 4/4 stabs build out of soft noise; the pads got a bigger part in the play as well, becoming more stretched out and cycled in gain. The 129 BPM follow-up Glass Chair is not a number that can be genre-labeled with an ease, its faintly pulsating kicks and vocalized stabs with sections of quickly rising and abruptly falling in gain, suspenseful pads create an eerie atmosphere, enriched by abundant minutiae of scratching, sizzling, quietly burning samples. Straightening things out, Harushi Clan reconstructs the Glass Chair into a 5 BPM-faster techno track, engaging thudding kicks, half-bar shifted, sandy hats and syncopated stabs, softly chirping, spaceship dashboard-evocative bleeps and slowly panning, oscillating ambiance. The final piece from Airsilk is shy of a bassline and isn't big on tonal elements in general, but it might just mess up your circadian clock with the ever-revolving, polyrhythmic patterns; its elevated, low bass-supported drum kicks seldom strike twice in the same place, frequently changing their time signatures, being surrounded by numerous clattering percussive elements that travel through the channels as they please, all contributing generously to a clamorous mass of indecipherable audio data that is a Plant Clock Manual. Once again, Harushi Clan rearranges the kicks to 4/4, boosting them with enough weight to send the tremors across the earth, hooks them up to distorted reverberations and engages a couple sets of dry hats running half a bar after kicks, wooden bars at 16/16, airy sweeps at 12/12 and stabs of exhaling synths, as well as a wickedly roaring, electric bassline that stretches into fields of pure aural joy.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 12 April 2017

Release Format: Digital

Record Label • Catalog: Variance • VAR018

Purchase Links: Beatport • Junodownload • Bandcamp