Remain calm. No, seriously, get a hold of yourself! Despite the news of Variant Electronic's impending possible near-future wrap-up, news of which was brought to the public via post on Facebook, the label is still active and there is no need for to set yourself on fire in protest... for now. Just how active it is, you ask? Well, it's somewhere on the verge between "pretty damn" and "hall of a lot", which means checking out through self-immolation would be premature as there are still things to stick around for. Smoking hot on the heels of Clasps' blasting debut EP Gag and C​-​System's completely unexpected knockout album Cardinal Sins, Variant Electronic is ready to present you with yet another splendid release. Hop up and open your mind for Action EP, comprised of three offerings from a France-based artist Proceed and backed by rework from Thomas K. as well as a collaborative remix from Reject & Valerio. Sounds good? Yes it does. In all the applicable senses.

    134 BPM-paced opener starts of with already running 4/4 drum kicks, non-intrusive clicks and two layers of sweepers - why bother cobbling together a snooze-inducing ambient intro when you can jump right into Action? Short sections that take breaks from kicks introduce new elements at their end, which are: a reverberated synth pattern, craftily designed to resemble vocals, a dirty three-note loop of high-reaching acid, and half-bar shifted, open hats. Once one BPM faster Action rework by Thomas K. starts, you'll probably be tempted to bring up the player up from the tray to see what exactly is playing - it's not often that one gets to hear to hear a smooth, jazz-type drum solo in a techno release, yet this is exactly what one gets, and jazz isn't the only genre fused into this piece - along with deeply rooted kicks that keep shifting their time signatures, sweeps of hats and even glitchy, pitching synths, expect also influences from world music, expressed through African hand drums; bravo, a highly polygonal production. Reject & Valerio, on the other hand, opted a trodden and trustworthy path to not-always-reliable experimentation - they conjured up a somewhat tech-house-leaning 131 BPM stomper, engaging steady, thumping 4/4 kicks, three layers of sweeps, fairly generic open hats and claps, arrhythmically bleeping stabs while reshaping the vocal synth which was taken from original. It's all in the name - a 135-paced Bouncing & Drumming describes perfectly the nature this penultimate piece - the kicks here are heavy, but what's heavier is an unyielding pressure coming from the low bass; thankfully though, it retreats in strategically placed, frequent breaks, providing the ears just enough rest, and to highlight the range of the spectrum above it, which consists of a skanky bassline loop that will surely unbind the ugly side of your mind, intangible background sweeps and short strikes against closed high hats; a devilishly corrupting number capable of turning an alter boy into a heroin-shooting punk in under 6 minutes. If there's a failsafe warehouse weapon of mass destruction on this EP it is surely a 132 BPM closer Give The Dog A Bone - its heavily thudding, acid-soaked kicks run under driving, moderately distorted bassline oscillations, whipping strikes and wooden clonks, while metallic clicks and shakers run above all the rest, serving as a nice topping on this neatly pieced together, rough cake with an aftertaste of iron.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 24 March 2017

Release Format: Digital

Record Label • Catalog: Variant Electronic • VE011

Purchase Links: Beatport • Junodownload • Bandcamp