Posted 2012-03-28 in Releases   Permalink

DSK009: A Taut Line - 2776 Digital Hi-Vision

1. Sanreizan
2. Drunk
3. Sands
4. Laxckqer
5. Blue Optics

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Following collaborative/split releases with Hong Kong In The 60s and BD1982 (as well as his work as one half of Greeen Linez), 2776 Digital Hi-Vision is the debut full EP from Diskotopia co-founder Matt Lyne (aka A Taut Line). With this release, the UK-born/Japan-based producer/DJ elaborates on his trademark mesmeric tuned percussion and nocturnal cityscape atmospherics to conjure an intoxicating dreamstate re-imagining of his adopted home country.

The EP’s opener, Sanreizan, combines haunting Sakamoto-esque chimes, a Mantronix-stamped 303 bass-line and scattershot laser-bent synths, coasting like subatomic waves of atmospheric pressure during a space station docking sequence. The track gradually builds to a heady peak, reminiscent of Ken Ishii’s hallucinatory house music and the voyage-based animation and educational science videos of the late ‘70s and ‘80s that were a formative influence on Matt’s psyche.

The aptly-titled Drunk mixes percussive rave stabs, slippery two-step drum patterns, disembodied vocal chants and Orbital-esque cyber-arpeggios. Ghostly flashbacks of 90s piano house haunt the upper range, coalescing with the garage-infused rhythms and bouncy sub-bass to create a woozy yet irresistible sense of after-hours dancefloor delirium.

Sands begins as a Fourth World space nocturne, with slinky portamento washes and distant tribal percussion breaking out into a solid mid-tempo stomp. Synthetic bass plucks woven through room-filling claps transport the listener from an imaginary savannah under the stars to a nightclub heaving with ecstatic bodies.

Laxckqer ramps up the semi-industrial percussion and late-night psychic wanderings that suffuse A Taut Line’s music. Exquisitely spooked Rhodes and narcoticised murmurings, reminiscent of the epochal Super Discount releases, gradually give way to razor-edged euphoria, as waves of distortion and treated vibraphone envelop the listener in a womb-like catacomb of early-hours paranoiac rapture.

The EP’s closing track, Blue Optics, evokes sunrise towards the end of an epic nocturnal journey, its polyrhythmic future soul and swung wood-cut rhythms perfectly soundtracking the transition from night into day. Eerily calm on the surface, yet permeated with a sense of restless urgency, comedown bliss battling the irresistible urge to keep on dancing.

Check out the video for Sands: