Pär Grindvik: Score for Direction
Stockholm LTD

Ear-catching two-tracker from Berlin-based Pär Grindvik (aka The Hollow) who founded Stockholm LTD in 2002 as an outlet for techno releases by Swedish electronic artists. Score For Direction's two cuts are dramatically different in character, with the A-side a blistering stormer and the B designed to help one survive the after-hours comedown. Peppered by percussive burble, the thunderous clockwork burner “Akusitk” rolls out in a metronomic gallop that grows ever more dizzying, and a slow-motion wave repeatedly descends, drenching the rumbling groove without arresting its urgent attack. Tension increases almost unbearably as a string motif loops incessantly, defying resolution, and martial snares assert themselves, after which the shape-shifting colossus winds up and then detonates as it charges home. Grindvik slows the BPM for “Ensemble” which is geared more for the post-rave lounge where clubbers vainly struggle to re-assemble the battered shards of their psyches. The track couples a bass sound as huge as the Atlantic with a slinky, back-beat house crawl; episodes surface and recede throughout, with everything moving at half-speed and consequently imparting a druggy aftertaste.

March 2008