Claro Intelecto: Warehouse Sessions Volume 5
Modern Love

Move D: Drøne
Modern Love

The fifth and final 12-inch chapter in Claro Intelecto's (Mark Stewart) Warehouse Sessions pairs the jack of an eleven-minute stormer with a slightly more easy-going house cut on the flip. Storming out of the gate with a tight hi-hat-and-bass drum combination, “Hunt You Down” slowly morphs into a steamy roiler chaperoned by all manner of metallic shards and fluid chords; in truth, though the track's huge sound is impressive, it would benefit from a bit more variety: once firmly in place, the groove hardly wavers and aside from the shape-shifting textural overlay there's not a whole lot more going on otherwise. “Momento” rolls out a bass-heavy jack and then peppers it with snapping snares and light-speed stabs, all the while bringing skipping hi-hats and claps to the surface and then dropping them out just as rapidly. The B side succeeds better in this case by never settling into predictability; there's always something new and unexpected happening and the listener's attention never flags. Trainspotters will want to keep an eye out for the upcoming Claro Intelecto CD that will collect the five vinyl sessions onto a single release.

Emerging from a wheezing spatter of percussive knocks, Drøne, the sole occupant of this one-sided 12-inch, gradually assumes clearer definition with the addition of restless snares and metallic washes and then picks up speed as racing hi-hat patterns and a booming kick drum enter the fray. At the three-minute mark, the tune's broiling and so securely in place it can withstand however many dropouts Move D (David Moufang) throws at it without losing its purposeful thrust. Further grounding sets in at the six-minute stage with a cavernous bass pulse cozying up to the now-sizzling groove. Decompression momentarily sets in, allowing snares to scatter into the open air, before Drøne dusts itself off and storms off, cooling ever so slightly as the finish line comes into view. The title? A long, mutating drone persists throughout the thirteen-minute techno raver though one's attention is so completely absorbed by the percussive activity the “melodic” detail recedes into the background.

July 2008