Hand Plant / Gone Ghost
Vinyl / Digital
Disco Bloodbath Recordings / Released August 2012
What does it sound like?
Ben Pistor, of Disco Bloodbath note, and Sam Watts, best known as one-half of Maxxi Soundsystem, come together to realise a veritable meeting of minds that’s rather difficult to categorise from the outset. Filtered, synth brass riding above a heavy b-line may invoke electro house anthems, but the reality is pretty far from that presumption. An off-beat workout, straddling almost every electronic genre people dance to, it still manages coherency; freaky, but not too freaky.
Apparently the title track and A-side were inspired by a tour round dilapidated buildings, and it’s easy to see what they mean. The percussion adding a broken edge to that aforementioned sizeable intro, dissipating into brooding waves of noise. Allegedly they found the urban decay strangely beautiful, as many people do, and so logically there’s also a subtle euphoria to the plink plonk melodies, winding up somewhere between a kind of M83 for the dancefloor, post-dubstep fare a la Martyn, and Vitalik Recordings’ output.
Jamie Blanco offers a remix on the flip, which sides far more with the house music end of things, read through retro eyes. Punchy snares and many a drum roll providing the all important kicks, acid lines flailing off into the distance and a sweeping baritone also present and correct, all set to a much higher pace. And then there’s Arpy, a b-sider that again shows Hand Plant to be a pair capable of producing some pretty odd sounds. High pitched piano stabs and stomping breaks give things an early electro flavour, whilst the reverberating low end lays a mechanical undertone. Different, but definitely welcome, and certainly exciting for a label’s second release.
What highlights can I expect to hear?
Fans of Mr Von Stroke’s production school may well go for the third track referenced above. We’d say that, despite stiff competition, Gone Ghost‘s original trumps the lot.
Where can I buy it?
Juno.