Mick Finesse, Tunnel Vision EP – Perc Trax
January 24, 2012 in Music, Reviewed - Extended Players
Denver’s own Mick Finesse (aka Steve Penders), recently released a very fine techno record for a very fine label, run by a very fine man. Ali ‘Perc’ Wells being the latter runs Perc Trax and released the EP “Tunnel Vision”…straight outta London.
The record opens with “Seditation Chamber”, a broken-beat slow mover. What sounds like an industrial guitar riff floating along between morphed up, sinister vocal snippets is what carries the momentum here. A dark synth compliments the riff, a simple 2 kick beat glues it all together. As it’s tempo is cleverly disguised at 127 bpm, this track could be a useful tool to segue in and out of the 4/4.
“They Sex Machinas” moves on smooth, tidy and bouncy. The bounce provided by a bass line of perhaps vintage Chicago veins. The tidy in the production, the vocal sample of “come on…drop…ready” is effective and cute. The smooth in the sparse elements used to build a whole, larger than its sum. A buzzing bee buzzes to and fro throughout the tune adding some nice texture.
Both of Perc’s remix’s of ‘They Sex Machinas’ storm on like the brain bashing techno that is par for the course from the gentle man. A small calm before said storm and then “drop”…VOOM VOOM VOOM. The vocals from the original are twisted and mashed up, the tempo is increased significantly and the swell just keeps shrinking and growing. Industrial, hypnotic and banging, these tracks are fit for the dark dance floor. On ‘Percs Dub Decision’, Perc decided to leave the vocals out of the same remix.
‘The Tunnel” is a swirling, techno tune with a hint of dub that cruises along nicely. A beacon signal echoes and plays off mechanical hits and noises that reflect the aesthetics of Perc Trax as a label.
I’m a sucker for good uplifting chords and pads, so “The Vision” is the pick of the litter here for me. It opens with warm pads and blossoms into a beautiful IDM type track that again, written at 125 bpm can be slotted in perfectly as an opener or closer…or wherever really. Its a great culminaiton of both hard and soft sounds, that with grace, rounds out this solid release.
We’re very proud of Steve and the work he is doing…personally, maybe I can ride his coat tails a bit, people often do mistake us for the other.
- Steve
More on Mick Finesse, Perc and Perc Trax.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/mickfinesse - Bio
http://perctrax.bandcamp.com/- Buy
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1425 - Perc Trax RA Feature
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=8226 - Perc and Mick RA Event Review in Denver.
Love the blog
Thank you Shannon
i agree with the idea of the short sample being a mis-leading indiaction of what the full track sounds like. that was certainly the case with Kaseem Mosse’s untitled on Laid last year and to a lesser extent here with Levon’s release.@Pierre-Nicolas: the online shops generally do not choose the samples, they come from the label themselves and are sent through the distribution channels, but they almost always are the same: 90 sec snippet of 1 section of the record. are you suggesting a more patchwork representation of the record (30 sec/30 sec/30 sec)? it is a major flaw in the digital era of record shopping, that we as consumers cannot hear the whole record. but with soundcloud/youtube if you wait sometimes you can find full versions to listen to.
Hello Cesar,
thanks for writing and sorry on the delay back. What exactly are you on about here ?
Cheerio.