Richie Hawtin has made some excellent though unexpected choices in 2007 with his still-thriving imprint. After implausibly giving newcomer JPLS a magnetic though understated full-length album showcase, the superstar DJ/producer shifts away from that informed unorthodoxy with a relatively risk-free and agreeable extended EP from one of his apparently deserving second-tier acts.
Though Gone Astray marks his first ever CD as a solo artist, Troy Pierce has enjoyed a fair bit of attention through releases with well-received projects such as Louderbach and the decent yet inexplicably hyped Run Stop Restore trio with Magda and Marc Houle. On the surface, he seems a perfectly reasonable and logical fit to get his time on plastic, though with only 8 original tracks out of the 10 provided here, I immediately found myself concerned over whether or not this could live up to the promise and challenge of JPLS' Twilite. Having been written largely while on the road, this incohesive collection of material seems perfectly appropriate for the 2x12" vinyl format, but as a disc it feels forced.
To his credit, Pierce does not hold fast to stoic asceticism in these fit and funky productions, unlike many of his restrained M_nus peers. Opening with "Lost On The Way To DC10 (Berlin)," he precariously tinkers in the fuzzy, quasi-melodic badlands that make minimal techno just about impossible to define. Konrad Black's subsequent remix initially attempts to suppress the excesses of the original, though the textures and tones gurgling under the surface are far too animated to stay beneath the low-pass filters for very long. Rhythms swing freely as well as on comparatively sparer cuts like "Word" and the claustrophobically acidic "Golden." "Go Without Me (Come Back)" is almost nausea-inducing with its oscillating, disoriented waves, while "Finnished" bleats an routinely EBM-esque bassline in the vein of early Nitzer Ebb.
Appearing in two versions, the bleak and bleepy "Even If It's Alone" features the infrequent voice of Louderbach collaborator Gibby Miller. The basic lyrics and dry delivery hemorrhage a druggy desperation, something all too common and rather tiresome on the cold vocal tracks that M_nus and like-minded labels have unleashed in the past couple of years. Ultimately that very familiarity—or rather, that unoriginality—evinces why Gone Astray will hardly move more than the dancefloor, and even then only fleetingly. Pierce's work, though quite satisfactory, finds its home in the comfortable and even prosaic, whereas with JPLS' album, strains of a possible genre evolution tantalized and provoked. Techno devotees will naturally engage with these tracks but, with nothing captivating to cling to or embrace, will likely forget all about them shortly after the disc is done.
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