Franck Valat: Quazar
Gravite Records

Overseen by Paris-based Bruno Sacco (one-time member of Saccobros alongside his brother Lorenzo), the recently established Gravite Records features Franck Valat on its second twelve-inch. Raw and hard-hitting, Quazar features four tracks (one a digital bonus) of ice-cold techno, with the title track getting an additional workout from Sacco himself.

Smothered in industrial grime and hiss, “Quazar” batters its thumping bass pulse and pummeling groove with an array of relentless machine noise and sweeping smears for eight industrial strength minutes, after which “Cosmic Bells” pounds as brutally if a tad more melodically, thanks to the clangorous bell chimes and poppy melodic figures that repeatedly emerge. If anything, the second track proves to be even more uncompromising than the first on account of its cacophonous dimension. Sacco cools the pace for a lumbering, heavily atmospheric, and dub-inflected “Space Remix” of “Quazar” that thunders with as serious an intent as the original but for about about half the running time. The digital-only “The Signal” is no leftover either but rather a more house-styled banger that swings with machine-like determination. The release clearly shows that Valat, active as a DJ since the late ‘90s, has a jones for techno of the most unrelenting kind.

September 2012