Articles
Christopher Tignor
Spotlight 13

Albums
Advanced Dreams
Federico Albanese
Matthew Barlow
Bruno Bavota
Black Unicorn
Bolder
Borghi & Teager
Carla Bozulich
Chris Campbell
Colo
Deadbeat / Paul St Hilaire
Detroit Swindle
Donato Dozzy & Nuel
Yair Etziony
Lewis Fautzi
Hammock
Mark Harris
Hideyuki Hashimoto
Kodomo
Listening Mirror
Lost Trail
Lucy
Machine Code
Yann Novak
Opitope
Origamibiro
Pinkcourtesyphone
Michael Robinson
Mariano Rodriguez
Dana Ruh
Janek Schaefer
Sketches for Albinos
Jakob Skøtt
Talk West
Christopher Tignor
Wen
Scott Worthington

Compilations / Mixes
Generation Hyper
Sharam Jey

EPs / Singles
Children of the Stones
Dexima
Dexta & Hyroglifics
dock 1
Dream Weapons
Dr.Res
FFM Vol. 2 EP
Glory Club
Nightstalker EP

Dr.Res: Lung Kidnapping
Disboot

Dr.Res's Lung Kidnapping is, in a word, mercurial: the moment I try to affix a particular genre to it, it slips through my grasp, evading capture. One might think that a mashup of dub-techno, IDM, hip-hop, and ambient—to name but a few of the styles that emerge over the course of its twenty-nine minutes—would be an incoherent mess, but not in this case. Based on the available evidence, Dr.Res, otherwise known as David Torres, has combined all said parts on his debut EP and somehow managed to have a seamlessly coherent suite of original material come out the other side.

“Human Taxidermy” provides a provocative way into the release, with Torres fashioning a lurching beat pattern from found sounds as well as (what sounds like) acoustic drums. Synthesizers play a dominant role, too, in a brooding setting that eventually mutates into an insistent, headnodding exercise in tripped-out, instrumental hip-hop. Chunky house chords and a snappy microhouse pulse give “Kugutsushi,” one of the EP's clubbiest cuts, a forceful kick and propulsion, while vaguely Asian-sounding melodies lend it an exotic character. Percussive treatments in “Une Marionette” suggest Torres might have sampled typewriter clacks for part of the house-inflected rhythm design, but that sound is merely one element within a rich panorama, with synthesizers once again featured prominently. The EP receives a heady injection of dub-techno in “Found,” even if other styles—IDM, trance, and house among them—surface also during its five-minute run, after which Torres caps the release memorably with “Oro Negro,” a solemn, seven-minute space odyssey that traverses the galaxies with dub-techno rhythms once again providing fuel. Clearly there are marked differences between the five settings, yet Lung Kidnapping somehow manages to hold together as a cohesive whole despite the contrasts. Upon listening to the release, words like accomplished and polished repeatedly come to mind.

March 2014