Articles
2011 10 Favourite Labels
Spotlight 3

Albums
Félicia Atkinson
Autistici
Bee Mask
Biomass
Gui Boratto
Peter Broderick
Benjamin Broening
bvdub
Chicago Odense Ens.
Dday One
Lawrence English
The Field
Nils Frahm
Douglas Greed
Jim Haynes
Hess + McFall
High aura'd
Hior Chronik
itsnotyouitsme
King Midas Sound
Leyland Kirby
Knox & Oberland
Koss/Henriksson/Mullaert
Tom Lawrence
Mist
Phonte
Planetary Assault Systems
Rustie
Sense
Sepalcure
Slove
Splashgirl
Two People In A Room
Vaetxh
Christina Vantzou
Marius Vareid
Wolfgang Voigt
Water Borders
Wenngren & Bissonnette
Xhin
Eisuke Yanagisawa
yMusic

Compilations / Mixes
Above The City
Air Texture Vol. 1
Burning Palms
Emerging Organisms 4
Live And Remastered

EPs
Antonymes/ S. D. Society
Cardopusher
Cyrus
Gulls
Keepsakes
Late Night Chronicles
Old Apparatus
Option Command
Pillowdiver
Benoît Honoré Pioulard
Kevin Reynolds
Strategy

Xhin: Sword
Stroboscopic Artefacts

Indicative of its cold, precision-tooled design, Sword, the second full-length from Xhin (pronounced “sheen”), would sound equally at home on Ostgut Ton as Stroboscopic Artefacts. Hailing from Singapore, the producer joined Lucy's Berlin-based label in 2009 after issuing his debut album, Greyscale, in 2008 on Meerestief Records, and now follows it with this ten-track exercise in sonic futurism and advanced sound design. Once of the first things one notices about the collection is its dualistic nature, as Xhin leavens the brutal techno that characterizes much of the album with a smaller number of well-timed ambient settings.

Xhin first lulls the listener into a state of contemplation with “The Secret Closet,” a beatless overture of shuddering chimes and frost-laden flickerings, before jolting him/her awake with the aggressive beat science and acid-flecked seizures of “Fox and Wolves,” the first of many ice-cold future-techno throwdowns. His relentless and uncompromising attack lends a track such as “Teeth” a pulverizing, indomitable thrust that gives it the character of an artful club banger; another hard-hitter is “You Against Yourself,” whose pounding beat throb Xhin drenches in acid fever and beseiges with off-beat percussive careen. A second beatless setting, “Insides,” allows the listener to catch his/her breath with a two-minute interlude of elecro-acoustic piano experimentation, as does the slightly more aggressive “Wood,” where glimmering piano patterns sparkle and billow for four radiant minutes.

While “Medium” works itself into an epileptic frenzy with a plethora of ultra-fidgety Autechrian rhythms and stutter-funk writhings, the industrial-strength “Vent,” one of the album's standout tracks, pumps for nine minutes with a locomotive house fury that's more in line with Lucy's own 2011 full-length, Wordplay for Working Bees. Xhin also demonstrates a good sense of sequence and pacing on this outing, something that comes into clear focus in his decision to end the album on a relatively soothing note with “This Is What You Drew While You Were Half Asleep.” One thus comes away from the album with one's nerves a little less frazzled and one's impression of the album enhanced.

November 2011