- One way to look into making an already pent-up and intense techno track more pent-up and intense is to hand it to Robert Hood, as O/V/R did on their choice 2010 release "Post-Traumatic Son." The original was a laser-focused track with a slightly bulbous aspect, but Hood dresses it down, to the surprise of pretty much no one. Vocals enter in at the beginning, intoning a couple of hushed and murky phrases that end with "Does he have the marks, do you see them?" When the beat starts up, the track takes on a folding, convulsing quality much different from the original's roll, almost like a stop/start slow-motion jacking sound. It's halting, not really the kind of rhythm to do anything but stand around and look confused to. But there's something in the severity of it to make it strangely funky too, especially as it crests near the end.
Two mixes by DVS1 take up the B-side, one a "Pessimist Mix" and the other an "Optimist Mix." (Does it mean anything that the pessimist goes first?) The opening one is in fact pretty downcast, a moody dirge even when it bumps up to streamlined speed. The "Optimist Mix" is more interesting for how odd it is, filled with deliberately overly bouncy sounds that makes for a unsettling and vertiginous sensation, like someone fake-smiling so overzealously that it turns into something sinister.
Tracklist A Post-Traumatic Son (Robert Hood Mix)
B1 Post-Traumatic Son (DVS1 Pessimist Mix)
B2 Post-Traumatic Son (DVS1 Optimist Mix)