Articles
2011 Artists' Picks
Spotlight 5
Albums
1982
Marvin Ayres
Big Quarters
Birds Of Passage
Brunborg / Huke
bvdub
Charlatan
City of Satellites
Cokiyu
CYNE
Dakota Suite / Sirjacq
Tomoyoshi Date
Dday One
Vladislav Delay
Ensemble Economique
Esperanza
Frost & Bjarnason
Integral
Lullatone
Mario & Vidis
Dean McPhee
Mint Julep
Muhr
James Murray
Muta
Nicholas: Nu Groove
pacificUV
Papir
Andrew Pekler
Pimmon
Simon Scott
Quentin Sirjacq
Stormloop
Swod
szilárd
Tapage
Carl Taylor
Willamette
Boo Williams
Reissue
Pink Floyd
Compilations / Mixes
Marcel Dettmann
Fabriksampler V4
Inertia: Resisting Routine
Tech My House 5
Visionquest
EPs
0311
A Sun-Amissa
Jacksonville
Arev Konn
Neon Cloud
Phasen
Photonz
Rivers Home
Muta:
Runner
King Deluxe
Very much emblematic of the King Deluxe aesthetic, Runner by Muta (Denver-based music and philosophy student Cliff Harris) twists and turns through thirty-four, seizure-gripped minutes of synth-infested landscapes with a smattering of collapsing hip-hop rhythms in tow. For his full-length Muta debut, Harris draws inspiration from the 1976 sci-fi opus Logan's Run, a film about a young man fleeing home to avoid scheduled termination (hence the album title).
“Cursed Words” sputters and convulses awake before jerking to attention with some stumbling, post-Autechre-ian rhythms. Without pause, lo-fi splatter of blips and bloops enters the picture in “Chipped,” after which the Muta style comes into clearer focus during “Elixer,” “Lock Jaw,” and “Misfit Toys” when swirling synth patterns and downtempo funk rhythms roll out with greater control and coherence. Smothered in hiss, the two burbling parts of “All Impulse” carve jaunty pathways through hyperactive rhythmscapes, while hints of acid and dubstep sneak into the wobbly “Misfit Toys,” perhaps the most club-friendly of the cuts on offer.
In one sense, the film turns out to be a good fit for Muta's sound, even if his wonky hip-hop is decades removed from the stale sci-fi treatments that root the film so squarely in the ‘70s. It's the film's futuristic vibe that proves the fertile ground out of which Runner grows, with Muta's nine-track collection a fast-moving exercise in retro-futurism heavy on synthetic micro-flutter.
January 2012