Available on: Curle 12″

Peter Van Hoesen & Donato Dozzy – ‘Talis’

Matt O’Brien – ‘Into the Red’

This is just an odd little twelve. Everything about it, really. The pairing of Matt O’Brien and Van Hoesen/Dozzy is odd to begin with, O’Brien’s aggressive dancefloor mania clashing with the more reserved and muted dub-techno of Peter Van Hoesen and Donato Dozzy’s bass-driven work. This single on Belgian label Curle is admittedly a bit of a bit of a ying-yang affair with two drastically different sides, but even more surprising is that the Hose/Dozzy track is not anywhere close to the brooding bassy monster you’d expect. Instead, ‘Talis’ is a peaceful ride down a neon-lit highway, with smoothed-out chords and filters so heavy-handed you can barely make out their original shapes, never mind their edges. The track ebbs effortlessly, lights spreading out as they wash over the windscreen, vehicles passing by in exaggerated slow motion. The road starts to get bumpy as the bass worms its way in, getting closer and closer to the surface and causing little tremors until it erupts in a glorious natural light show of aurora borealis, subtly raving and reaching its natural conclusion – rarely does techno sound this graceful.

O’Brien’s turn is a bit more assertive, though considering his back catalogue it’s a rather restrained job. Volleys of percussion hit the aptly-named ‘Into The Red’ like rapid-fire waves cresting on a beach, knocking the track under the surface and muffling the sounds for a few seconds a time; the classic, nostalgic bassline keeping it under until the blackout. Then the track goes nuts: massive acid spikes exploding like hi-NRG trapped in a tiny box, siren strings wailing, scifi chords, everything you could want in a cheeky rave-up track. It does feel a bit disingenuous to have such a banger on the same release as ‘Talis’ – after being wowed by that track’s subtle dignity it sounds almost obnoxious. But a few minutes in you’ll be too lost in O’Brian’s soupy basslines to think about that anymore. What Curle have done here is something magic, taking two uncharacteristic tracks from producers with little in common and somehow made them fit together perfectly, like two sides of a very, very valuable coin.

Andrew Ryce