Loco Dice: Seeing Through Shadows
Minus

Following on the heels of his “Orchidee” contribution to min2MAX, German hip-hop and house producer and DJ Loco Dice (Dice Corleone) makes an auspicious Minus debut with this intoxicating two-tracker. “Seeing Through Shadows” gathers steam slowly, as if rousing from a deep sleep. In its opening moments, crackling and tearing sounds chatter alongside a relaxed pulse while trademark Minus bleeps make intermittent interjections. The build is effected so subtly it verges on imperceptible but halfway though a high-pitched melody and backbeat hi-hat pattern announce a funkier escalation. The swinging groove gets only deeper from then onwards with a slithering bass line only one of the track's many delights. The throbbing pulse that initiates “Backroom Melody” suggests the second piece might hew closer to conventional techno but Loco Dice instead hurls a spacey array of emissions, string plucks, claps, and sputtering melodies at the anchoring groove. Spacier than the A-side, the alluringly trippy cut may remind some listeners of Drexciya. A more than fine addition to the Minus catalogue.

September 2006