- Acre and Filter Dread are excellent choices for the relaunch of Visionist's Lost Codes label, which returns as a PAN imprint dubbed Codes. Both artists have appeared on the label before, and are among the most innovative producers linked to new instrumental grime, drawing on a range of styles with flair. This collaborative EP suppresses their weirder urges, however—with the exception of "Life," whose frantic tom-tom pattern clings tenuously to the grid, buffeted by hoover stabs and bits of robotic chatter.
Mostly, the pair meet on firmer grime-techno ground, though Interference's range is far from narrow. It can be expansive and tuneful, as on "Drumz 34," whose sour melody plays out over 8-bit burbles, or "Blood Artists," whose foggy toplines recall the blue sci-fi moods of Legowelt. Acre and Filter Dread can do grimey pyrotechnics, too, particularly on "Flash Speed," where B-movie melodies ride a cresting tsunami of bass pulses. If anything, the pair's main problem is an excess of ideas: Interference's six tracks tend to be dense, their smog of reverb and layered percussion filling every cranny of the mix. A track like "Trashed" has Acre's fingerprints all over its rolling technoid beat, but would have benefitted from a drier treatment. The work fares better when the producers use this overload to their advantage, as with the noxious psychedelia of "Unknown."
TracklistA1 Drumz 34
A2 Flash Speed
A3 Trashed
B1 Life
B2 Unknown
B3 Blood Artist