- The "cocktail party effect" refers to humans' ability to pick one sound out a bunch of them, which, for instance, allows us to tune into a conversation at a noisy party. You can see why the term resonated with the Berlin-based South Londoner Charlie Baldwin, whose releases on Apollo as Kasket have come increasingly to sound like a load of drunk people—called things like jazz, psych-pop, IDM and post-Burial ambient—shouting over each other. His new alias focusses on a single conversation, namely the one about bass-loving UK producers making techno. Some of the tracks on his recent Helloyello cassette hinted at more exploratory angles for the project, but this fairly straight EP for Pinch's Cold Recordings is solid too.
As is the Cold way, the sounds are abrasive and the moods subzero. All that passes for melody on "Battered" is a strange high-frequency whimper, soon swept away by a bristling formation of kick drums and scrabbling percussion. "Intens," the EP's most striking track, permits a descending-scale earworm that, along with scrambled voices that recall early Blawan, ducks and weaves between pistoning drums. Both tracks show fleeting hints of swing, and the groove loosens further in the EP's other half. "OOYFM" is rhythmically UK garage, though its droning bass and cheesy vocal drops somehow nod to the gabber-hardcore axis. "I Kno3," featuring deft sidesticks and a thicker low-end snarl, does slinky menace better.
TracklistA1 Battered
A2 OOYFM
B1 Intens
B2 I Kno3