- Milo Smee launched his Bintus alias and Power Vacuum label in 2012, starting a new chapter of his career. His absurdist rave hybrids have since gained recognition among a new generation of techno fans with a taste for the harder stuff. But the other masks Smee has worn over his two decade career were never going to stay hidden for long.
This is one of two new EPs as Kruton, a name that has graced weirdo records for Mark Broom's Pure Plastic and Andy Blake's Dissident. It excavates Smee's hip-hop influences, and does so by going to the source. The EP features rapper Sensational, whose bizarre and grisly '90s work on Wordsound typified the leftfield spirit captured by early Kruton. The New York rapper has since collaborated with a range of electronic musicians, but rarely have these collaborations met Sensational so close to his own turf. Largely comprising boomy hip-hop instrumentals produced back in Kruton's early days, You In The Right Spot builds an intriguing bridge between old and new.
The sounds are mostly live—damp breakbeats played on a bedroom drum kit, oily bass guitar—and arranged into oddball loops. Over the top, a reverb-fogged Sensational focusses on style rather than content. His lines shuffle crabwise over the beat, switching between hip-hop braggadocio and something more unhinged. He often riffs on the dance floor context of Smee's music. In "Boogie Thing": "Watch the party jump / The beat bump," followed later by the weirdly compelling refrain, "Darlin' I'm taken / I'm not into fakin' bacon / Cake! Cake!"
The release is crowned by its most substantial track, "You In The Right Spot." It comes in an original version, whose menacing house trudge is softened with forlorn melodies in the latter half, but the updated version is the head-turner. Splitting the difference between old and new, the tune's loping halftime is rendered with Bintus-style ten-ton drums, harried by angry synth lines and the odd rave chord. Once Sensational's had his say, the drums reform into a chunky 4/4, stomping gleefully into the present day.
Tracklist01. Power Of Thought
02. You In The Right Spot (Bintus Reconstruction)
03. Turn The Page
04. Boogie Thing
05. You In The Right Spot
06. Turn The Page (Instrumental)