- It must amuse Steve Bailey, AKA Makaton, when people talk about the return of "real" techno. The UK producer has been releasing uncompromising techno for the past decade, immune to trends and fads, and it's tempting to posit that he views much of the stomp'n'grind of contemporary hard-edged electronic music with a healthy degree of sceptism.
That's not to suggest that Bailey is a jaded old fart: this release, which sees him hook up with Belgian label Token, having previously released almost exclusively on Rodz Konez, manages to give a platform to both his corrosive, sometimes abrasive approach and more considered yet effective sound. Bailey gets straight down to business on "Endless Revolt," where slamming, dense beats provide the backdrop for a building horn or possibly even a siren riff. "Guided By Voices" is built on screeching metallic riffs, but Bailey avoids monotony by cutting up the underlying rhythm.
"Paradise Lost," meanwhile, provides a breather of sorts, a chillingly calm female vocal inhabiting its tapestry of abstract sounds and muffled samples. Finally, "Safety Word" is almost like a return to the loopy tribal sound that prevailed at the end of the '90s. While it could be argued that this sound has re-appeared, repackaged on Klock's housey repetitions or assimilated into Dettmann's grungy rhythms and reverberating filters, Makaton's treatment is cleaner and more hypnotic, swathed in enigmatic chord sequences, a track that makes the release title all the more relevant.
Tracklist A1 Paradise Lost
A2 Endless Revolt
B1 Guided By Voices
B2 Safety Word