Scenery003?Reviewed

Music

Liverpool may have given its name to the aberration that is Scouse House but that fair city does have more to it than just inane happy hardcore rehashes. One such example of quality recently emerging from Merseyside is the Scenery Records imprint, which puts out various forms of the deeper shades of house and techno from a small but growing family of North Western based producers. The habit of pairing fresh faces with more established presences continues, with the third offering matching Circular Rhythms and Andy Ash.

The lead on the suitably heavyweight 12, Dub 2, acidically coruscates while retaining a heavy dubbed-out character. Andy Ashs first released take on dub-techno retains enough heavy echoed bass and skanky chords under the warbling acid line to make for a delightfully light while solid take on that often staid and po-faced sub-genre. The 2nd cut on the A, Distribution Theory, treads a more usual path for the summer of 2013, all rat-a-tat claps and stabs. Its another spin of the classic stompy house wheel that is saved by a touch of ethereality in the middle distance.

On the reverse comes a previously untouched find in the form of Circular Rhythms and his two slices of acid-technoid banger action. Starting with some creepy metallic tones and swiftly hammering home its point, the Millsian Untitled Document brings to mind railway tunnels, dingy warehouses and the long motorway journeys that were the start to many a rave over the last 3 decades. Circumflex rounds the EP off, in fact rams it home, with a humongously arching 303 over a banging kick. Its not subtle in any way, but then again this is track for playing loud at a party not beard-stroking reflection in a bar. If there is such a thing as slomo-acid-techno, this is it.