- Techno, broken to perfection.
- Since debuting on Nous'Klaer Audio with an EP of lovely subterranean techno, Tammo Hesselink has used each successive release to carefully dismantle the genre. Remove a kick drum here, stagger the rhythms there, sprinkle some LFO wobbles where they fit. Over time, Hesselink has developed a distinctly continental take on the kind of leftfield techno peddled by labels like Livity Sound and Timedance, spiked with an obvious influence from dub techno. On Beam, his latest double-pack for Nous'Klaer, he sketches out the furthest reaches of this style, ranging from hard-edged, shoulder-checking techno to celestial sunbursts of melody.
"Function As Foils" starts this off in comfortably Nous'Klaer territory. It's a flighty, Detroit-influenced cut with a supple rhythm section and little glimmers of vocal that sound off at the end of each phrase. It's techno as sound sculpture, full of details that wiggle and twitch in different parts of the stereo spectrum, triggering the pleasure centres and immersing the listener in a rich, sonic world. The best tracks here aren't quite as soft as that—"Rather Stationary" has a rough-and-tumble, tribal house-inspired beat with low rumbling basslines that release like spore clouds and flood each bar. "Don't Forget" is Head High lost on an acid trip in the desert, with a hard swing, distant hoover synths and dubby chords that roll along like tumbleweeds.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Tammo Hesselink record—or a Nous'Klaer record, for that matter—without some gorgeous melodic moments, and Beam offers plenty of that, too. For every prickly number like the heaving, hollow "Sourced," there's something like "Esteled," where the brain-tingling percussion jostles under a cloud of fluorescent synth. The best is "Eraser," whose blend of bone-dry drum sounds and surging sustain synths reminds me a lot of a contemporary version of Peverelist's "Clunk Click Every Trip," another track where almost belligerently stiff percussion gives way to a synth motif that sound like the heavens just burst open.
On "Eraser," where the halftime synth motif just gets louder and more beautiful with each passing minute, lazily coating the backdrop behind the driving broken drum pattern, you're reminded what makes Tammo Hesselink such a strong producer in a relatively crowded field. He just knows how to make things sound good. When you can do that in the middle of rhythmically complex, unpredictable dance music, it's all the more impressive.
Tracklist01. Function As Foils
02. Don't Forget
03. Sourced
04. Eraser
05. Rather Stationary
06. Sorry About That
07. Does It Matter
08. Etseled