Associating yourself with the right people is crucial when you're starting a new project and Italy-based Federico Amoroso understands it quite well. After two EPs that followed the launch of his vinyl-ready Skarn Division, Amoroso puts forth Heavy / Ocean, where he continues bringing together the fine producers associated primarily with an industrial branch of high-grade techno to remix his original tracks, executing a perfect formula of both expanding the roster of the label and enhancing recognition of his own artistic name.

    Opener Heavy sets the tone and that tone is made of unsettling, softly clipping noise wall that raises in intensity until the outside world is successfully drowned out. Hypnoskull, on the other hand, immediately unleashes widely hammering kicks to a startling effect, and as they shift between 2/3 and 3/3, the German lyrics flavored with a touch of distortion accompany them in a narrative—rather than singing—matter, which will certainly make this 80 BPM remix cater to those who remember the early Ant-Zen sound. Ryuji Takeuchi's 10 BPM faster redefinition of Heavy goes well in hand with his recent offerings - it's a concrete work wherein 9/10 kicks strike a fair game under sandy claps and non-intrusive, almost rustling hats through a dense ambiance of digital wind, blowing through spacious halls of a colorless facility, long-abandoned and weathered beyond repair.

    Situated deeply in low range, hostile throbbing that clearly tries to reach infrasonic waves effectively underlines panning swooshes in Amoroso's second original Ocean, which has about as bright and cheerful ambiance as does Pacific's Benthic zone. Ontal's 127 BPM version sees graceful syncopation being applied to tall-walking kicks and abrasive, noise-shaped hats that are thrown against roaring, but gain-wise subdued wall of noise—a rather unusual number of this Serbian duo, the one that shows what industrial techno can be in the hands of those that aren't attached firmly to the genre's supposed codex. Finally, Tomohiko Sagae opts to pace things at 130 BPM and provides us with direct, ruthless production that is aimed to wreak absolute havoc at a dancefloor and within the minds of unwary with straightforward 4/4 kicks, clanging of metal, distorted grinding of rusty gears and ghostly cries of restless souls of those who were too late to send out an S.O.S.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 3 September 2017

Release Format: Digital • Vinyl

Record Label • Catalog: Skarn Division • SKARNDIVISION003

Purchase Links: Bandcamp