Articles
Caleb Burhans
Causa Sui's Euporie Tide
Mary Halvorson

Albums
14KT
34423
Atiq & EnK
Simon Bainton
Caleb Burhans
Aisha Burns
Causa Sui
Cristal
Current Value
Deepchord
Marcel Dettmann
Diamat
Federico Durand
Benjamin Finger
FiRES WERE SHOT
Free Babyronia
M. Geddes Gengras
Ghost Station
The Green Kingdom
The Green Man
Mary Halvorson Septet
Camilla Hannan
Marek Hemmann
K11
Lawrence
James McVinnie
Alexandre Navarro
Oh, Yoko
Sebastian Plano
Severence
Snow Ghosts
The Stargazer Lilies
Telonius
Tigerskin
Orla Wren
Zinovia

Compilations / Mixes
Air Texture III
Balance Presents Guy J
Cassy
Compost Black Label 5
Enter.Ibiza 2013
Isla Blanca 2013
Loco Dice
Ultrasoft! Anthems 33
Till Von Sein

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Campbell and Cutler
Coal
dBridge
Desert Heat
Fields
Floex
Jim Fox
High Aura'd / B. Bright Star
Simon Hinter
Moon Ate the Dark
Northern Lights EP
Terrence Parker
Seba
Stephen Whittington
Xtrah

Current Value: Stay On This Planet
Subsistenz

Tim Eliot's Current Value profile was raised noticeably when he contributed beats to Bjork's “Sacrifice” for her 2011 Biophilia release and two pieces to the remix album a year later, but the so-called neuroid drum'n'bass music he releases on his own more than holds up on its own terms, as evidenced by his seventh solo collection Stay On This Planet (his first, Frequency Hunt, appeared all the way back in 1998 on Position Chrome). As this second outing on the Berlin label Subsistenz makes clear, the music produced by the Machine Code member (Subsistenz head Dean Rodell the other half) constitutes a raw take on the genre, with the twelve tracks collectively breathing lethal fire.

The Current Value sound isn't only drum'n'bass, however, as Eliot is more than happy to stretch its core sound into new directions by working in elements of techno and especially dubstep, making Stay On This Planet more than anything a recording occupying some indeterminate point between drum'n'bass and dubstep. Representative tracks such as “The Arrival” and “Ghost Rider,” to name two, feature punishing beatsmithing emblematic of the former, while their throbbing bass wobble clearly draws upon traditions associated with the latter. A given Current Value piece squawks and writhes aggressively like some naked Bath Salts addict flailing violently in the middle of the street (see “Weirdo”).

Vocal-inflected tracks like “Down My Veins” and “Stay On This Planet” suggest Eliot, like Bjork, recognizes how much more accessible a dubstep-drum'n'bass cut can be when there's a memorable vocal melody to hang its hat on. But such a move hardly registers as a compromise when the tracks otherwise wail with as much stutter-funk fury as the vocal-less cuts. If anything, a few more differentiating moves of that kind (such as the spiraling synthesizer pattern that begins “Stop Them,” for instance) would have been welcome to offset the sameness that begins to set in by the ninth or tenth cut. Even so, Current Value's music, regardless of whether it's called neuroid, technoid, neurofunk, or simply drum'n'bass, is a dark and relentless juggernaut that manifests the pulverizing intensity of breakcore and the underground grit'n'grime of dubstep. Definitely not one for your grandmother.

October 2013