- With Ruffa, Rohan Walder takes his place among the ranks of Tiga's so-called "New Jack Techno" generation. It's a logical move: while the boxy, heavily syncopated sound he made his name with owed more to Hessle Audio or Hemlock (he has released on both), the roughneck house and techno of his recent white label EP was more aligned with the likes of J.Tijn and Clouds.
These two tracks find Walder on typically lean and naughty form. "Ruffa"'s tart lead line, booming 808 bass and whipcrack snares are all drawn from the electro textbook. But Walder has been experimenting with creative use of distortion for a while now, and this one is seriously grotty, seeming to crumble at the edges when the bass drops. A similar trick is pulled with techno on "No Hook" to less exciting effect, though the tortured-metal snares and barbed synths still have plenty of clout. J. Tijn's version of the track isn't quite as scalpel-sharp, but he manages to brazen it out anyway, taking the yammering synth to maddening extremes before plunging into dub techno spaciousness in the closing minutes.
Tracklist A Ruffa
B1 No Hook
B2 No Hook (J. Tijn Remix)