bbcb: 28.58
Electroton

On 28.58 (the release's total running time), bbcb (aka Burlington, Ontario native Lawrence Horton) makes good on the electroton label name with a quartet of steam-rolling tracks. From its first moment, “scrtyis_14” locks into gear like a precision-tooled machine whose “on” switch has been triggered. In this opening cut, driving techno rhythms and granular winds commingle for eight churning minutes, all of it unspooling at a relentless keel free of peaks and valleys. Experimental techno in the truest sense, bbcb's material overlays his anchoring beat throb with a hyperactive swirl of hard-wired electrical textures and flickering sound design. Horton counts among his influences Plastikman, Basic Channel-Chain Reaction, Raster-noton, and Pan sonic, and it shows in the material's blend of rhythmic heft and sonic detail: “scrtyis_07” could be a lost track from some Chain Reaction session, given its skeletal techno thrust and metallic atmospherics; “scrtyis_300r” broils with Plastikman-like fervour; and “scrtyis_18else” is both alien (in its front-line chatter) and tribal (in its Autechre-styled beatsmithing). That said influences emerge in Horton's bbcb tracks isn't as much of a knock as it might seem, as he manages to build on the tradition to generate high-energy material that may be derivative to some degree yet still sounds fresh.

February 2010