The Two-Headed Monster. It’s a neat title at least, beating hands down the usual tales of two cities we get from the likes of Ministry who balance their double-disc mixtapes with titles as dull and effortless as ‘Beach Disc’ and ‘Club Disc’. In the one corner we have Transparent Sound who have been leading the UK electro drill since forming in 1994, and in the other Craig Richards part-time photographer, designer and Tech House DJ and famed for his 24-hour residencies at Fabric. Are they boxing clever? Well yes, as it would happen.
Primed as a vehicle for todays more challenging electronic sounds, the album draws on the more experimental styles of music that are nourishing Orson Records at present, from beat boffins as various as Crane AK, T.Raumschmiere, Lexdinamo, Apoll, Alex Under, Louderbach to the Transparent Sounds’ own reference spinning, boundary blurring contributions pulled from a live studio mix.
From the driving bass assaults of ‘Vintage’ and ‘Proper Techno’ through to the more delicate, intricate rhythms of ‘Variations Of An Attitude’ and ‘Voyeur’s Chance’ right through to the sublime ‘Hell Bent’ and ‘The Cider Club’, it’s a rigidly minimal, melodic and deep flowing set of tracks that although diverse, remain regular and fluent throughout.
A challenge for the casual fan of tech-house – but 70 minutes of cold-filtered tech-house for the rest.