“In the beginning, there was Jack, and Jack had a groove.” Last August, this iconic sequence from Rhythm Controll's 1987 classic.My house” was the opening album on Skee Mask's festival-2023″>back to back sets with DJ Rotterdam Foreign at the Dekmantel festival in Amsterdam. The reverberating proclamation served as the set-up for a loop of hard-hitting backwards groove that seemed to open a hole in space-time, sucking in all those in the vicinity of the UFO II stage. Inside the rift, Skee Mask and Stranger delivered a barrage of classic techno from Ben Sims, Jeff Mills and Joey Beltram.
It was an unexpected stylistic shift from Skee Mask, real name Bryan Müller, who is best known for mixing unpredictable broken rhythms from various genres of bass and breakbeats. On ISS010, the 10th EP from Ilian Tape's Ilian Skee series, makes his most extensive techno experience yet. From start to finish, the record runs with bouncy, tightly wound four-in-the-floor grooves that pump like oiled pistons. But don't mistake their repetition for monotony. If the shocks are the Müller's sturdy chassis, then the peripherals are its hissing hydraulics, warm neon lamp and spinning rims.
On “Matchpoint,” the repetitive bass line may induce mild tunnel vision, but Müller's amorphous percussion is the star of the show. It cycles through a non-hinged carousel of different hats, changes patterns and constantly tweaks delays, echoes, filters and sliding reverse effects. The following track, “Double Standard,” takes similarly monochromatic synths to more watery extremes, swirling them around a pulsing monolith of a groove. The way Müller slaps on different percussion elements with a sonic thwap brings to mind Jeff Mills, about whom Müller has posted more than once on X (formerly Twitter); trying to identify a long-lost track from a 1995 DJ set at Germany's Slam Club. Mills is a maestro behind the decks, commanding the equipment to do its bidding, and Müller suggests a similar assurance in the studio, which sounds like a state of unstoppable flow.
“Stomp” is where Müller implements the pleasing synthesis of synths and pads Compro in his new techno experiments. Taking off the throttle a bit, he introduces the EP's first breakbeat. For a moment, rigid techno and broken beats rub against each other before Müller welds them together with a swell that glows white hot. Just when they feel like they're about to break apart, another arc fires, melodic sparks flying away. Before the track ends, Müller indulges in a little IDM deconstruction that further bridges the gap between ISS010 and his previous work, if only for a moment. The recall is a welcome respite from a hard groove attack.
from our partners at https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/skee-mask-iss010