- Angus Tarnawsky may be new to the techno world, but he's no musical novice. The New York-based Australian has been an active participant in the city's experimental underground since the late '00s, playing drums in the band Apache Beat and running the In Context Music label. Adding another string to his heavily loaded bow, the Pitched EP is Tarnawsky's take on stern, IDM-inflected techno, although, as befits someone with his credentials, it doesn't feel like he has the dance floor in mind.
The EP's most kinetic moments, "Pitched" and "Expand Contract," eschew simple tension and release in favour of intricate stop-start rhythms, intriguing to the ear if a little confounding to the feet. Elsewhere we go even further off-piste—in "Ad Nauseam" and "Tour Maline," the pulse is little more than a timekeeper beneath layers of gloomy atmospherics. The latter is pretty forgettable, but the way the former swells to a rich, meditative peak is quite arresting. Throughout, Tarnawsky deploys the kind of sound palette you might associate with Raster-Noton—bursts of sculpted static, clear synthetic tones, bass that sounds like amplified ground hum. His main shortcoming is that he doesn't quite achieve the lasercut sonic precision that gives this style its impact.
Inner Surface co-founders AnD give "Pitched" a dance floor makeover, dropping the tempo a notch and ramping up the intensity. The result is a slow-burning drone-techno number that's lacking in AnD's trademark aggression but certainly not in oppressive weight.
TracklistA1 Pitched
A2 Pitched (AnD Remix)
B1 Ad Nauseum
B2 Expand Contract
B3 Tour Maline