Ah, Keepsakes. Now that's the man who works his rear off—as of late, anyway. Just two months after his acclaimed release on T/W/B, and he already has the next bunch of rusty beats to treat us with. Man Rants On E is his second release that gets a vinyl treatment, and Axel Sohns' imprint Mindcut, having already seen the contributions from the kinds of Ansome and Myler (as well as couple tracks from James Barrett himself, actually), feels to be the most suitable home for it. One of the tracks is remixed by Ayarcana, and while we're at it, let us tell you a few words about this Italian lad—from what we've heard, his music has been quite popular amongst the construction workers, and helpful also. Let us explain. You see, demolition through TNT charges is apparently quite an expensive way to get rid of dilapidated facilities. It turns out that the 10-feet speakers connected to any device that has Ayarcana tracks playing on it are capable of performing the same job just as effectively - if not more so. We hope this gives you some perspective.

    131 BPM opener Flail starts off with distorted 4/4 kick drums, a laid-back, acidogenic bassline (acidogenic—now a word), panning samples of clanging metal bars and periodically arising, Keepsake's signature lush and warm droning fields, that somehow don't feel out of place and which you wouldn't find in anyone else's industrial production. Flunk drops off a single BPM point and makes interaction between the rad droning and speedier bassline more closely tied, with slick breakbeat-styled arrangements by times replacing parts with hefty kicks, which allows to craftily change the genre of the piece back and forth; other elements include—originally-sounding, wacky 4/4 stabs, faint, almost inaudible female vocals and blasting drops of spacy acid, all of which got an unhealthy dose of distortion before they were sent to the master channel. Small Chips elevates to 133 BPM, bringing with it resonantly roaring male vocals (which, after all the heavy processing, can barely be called vocals any more—and that's a good thing), noticeably less distorted, but few notches heavier 4/4 kicks, unreasonably and unpredictably shifting bassline which at some points turns to pure surges of harsh noise, and panning, muffled-out clanging loops that freely travel between the fore- and the background. Excruciating, which is allegedly the word that was coined by the pioneers that have first discovered Ayarcana's music, is the most appropriate term one could use to describe the kicks on his Small Chips Remix, which keeps the tempo at original's pace; the aforementioned kicks are running below the screeching, horrific two-note pads, multiple layers of noise-shaped, hissing bands, unrecognizably reworked vocals, and shifted clanging samples that appear closer towards the end in groups of 9 for every 8 bars; don't forget to say your prayers before playing it (scribbling down a will wouldn't hurt either).

    Be advised—henceforth starts the digitally exclusive material. CTPA returns to 130 BPM, and its acod-soaked 4/4 kicks sound almost reasonable after the last number; everything goes according to the schedule, and they are doing their regular whanging business beside the unrushed bassline that steadily revolves to its own joy, a slightly oscillating droning signal, which, in contrast to previous appearances of this element, was devoided of all warmth and is now tonally-cold, some nutcase's unintelligible vocals and clonking, open 4/4 hats, that bring with them another set of panning, dry 16/16s, both of which show up half-track late, but steal the show effectively when they do. 134 BPM closer Jig builds up through an acid bassline a whole minute—and then some, before it brings up the thudding kicks whose 4th hit gets doubled every 16 bars, distantly located, wordless vocal loops, emanations of metal-associated works, generic, open 4/4 hats and erratic, wooden-sounding additional percussion, with infrequent, and because of that, all the more sudden intrusions of squeaking acid spillages.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 6 February 2017

Release Format: Digital ● Vinyl

Record Label ● Catalog: Mindcut ● MINDCUT11

Purchase Links: Beatport ● Junodownload ● Bandcamp ● Juno ● Deejay