October - 'Muscle Memory' EP

October - 'Muscle Memory' EP
[Caravan Recordings]
[March 2010]
90%

After a year long hiatus, Bristol based October aka Jules Smith and his Caravan Recordings imprint are back with a bang (well, more of a skewed analogue pulse than a bang, actually).

The Bristol based stoner-techno champ last allowed us a glimpse into his world in early 2009 with his Recession Mix Volume 1. It was a glitchy stomp through all manner of twisted techno and dub influences, and it stood out for its texture and roughness amongst a myriad of other, mostly pallid comps. Happily, October’s managed to pull the same trick once again with this, his two track Memory Man EP which is stuffed to shit with buzzy analogue niceness.

A-side ‘Flat Top Muscle’ is full of pent-up angst: prying squirms struggle in the background like druggy, sleep-depriving paranoia and the muted, bottom-end nastiness they make for percolate endlessly, looking for a way to break through and take over the track. But they never do. Instead, they continues to writhe about and effervesce in the background whilst the beat kicks a little funkier and detracts your mind from the latent malice. For its niggling, brooding intrigue, ‘Flat Top Muscle’ is hard to ignore.

It’s the flip that sent shivers down our spin the first time we heard it, though… ‘Memory Man’ is, quite frankly, an absolute monster. The first three and half minutes are skipping, bassy atmospheres with taught and tense noises dropping in and out - in its own right a nice track, but October doesn't let it end there....

Instead, as it plays on, things crumble down to pure ambience for a whole calm minute before a heavy breakbeat brings the track back to life and a simultaneously downward tumbling melody line and upward soaring synth twists your mind like would, I imagine, a big line of M-Cat /Ketamine mixed: first your mind and mood gets lead up to an airy high, but it's then quickly dragged down into a dark, K-hole low.

'Memory Man' is deliciously raw and alive with its analogue edge, fullsome blips and warbles and contradiction of upper vs downer. Neither dubstep or techno, nor even dubstepno or techstep, this B side (like the whole package) is instead an un-categorisable bump though all manner of mindstates, emotions and genres, and is an absolute winner as a result.


1) Flat Top Muscle
2) Memory Man