- Kowton's certainly had a hell of a 2013 so far. First there was Raw Code, his dark collaboration with Peverelist on Hessle Audio, which he followed up with TFB on All Caps and Mirror Song with Julio Bashmore on the latter's own label. Now on Shuffle Good he shows up with something more experimentally-led for Boomkat Editions, the label arm of the (online) Manchester record shop.
It suits him. On "Shuffle Good," a church bell-like chime rings ominously as a dubby bassline gathers momentum, settling into a slow groove. The great thickets of reverb are a far cry from his usually tough hybrid of techno and grime, but they retain his signature atmospheres of dread. "EFX01" is even more eerie, with spare percussion cracking through the sooty ambience, bringing to mind the scuzzy dub-techno of Modern Love (another label run out of Boomkat) and Shackleton at his most menacing. Andy Stott's "Shuffle Good" remix begins in a similarly sluggish way. The drums are eliminated bar the kick, and stabs of uneasy bass rumble along with shards of noise. The track then gives way to a corrosive snare pattern and hardcore percussion that shows the original mix's latent nastiness. Shuffle Good may be different from Kowton's more typical fare, but it's still the work of a producer on top form.
TracklistA1 Shuffle Good
A2 EFX01
B Shuffle Good (Andy Stott Remix)