- The hard-techno well seems some way from running dry. But as yet another young talent emerges, it can sometimes be difficult to tell precisely what fresh perspective they're bringing to the style. In places, the debut EP from London's Chinedu Eric Okere invites this criticism. The aptly titled "Screeching" is grubby techno of the sort MPIA3 was making in 2012. "Loud" occupies equally familiar coordinates, though its shoulder-rolling bassline suggests Okere has a keener understanding than most of what makes a good groove.
It's this understanding that, elsewhere, redeems him (that and his unusual palette of influences, which stretch beyond the gurning techno orthodoxy). "Crayons" keeps the white-hot distortion but ditches the piledriving rhythms in favour of an unstable halftime churn reminiscent of Shed in his 2-step phase. "Zaapp" maintains techno as its bedrock but overlays it with strange surface details—bleeps and tinny percussion that set off tiny eddies of propulsion and resistance. As the same playful, syncopated bounce recurs in "Spuud" and "Kaanit," Okere's music increasingly resembles the UK funky hybrids of five years ago—think Untold, Roska, early Breach. ("Spuud"'s soured chords feel particularly 2009.) There's a wonderfully agile feel to these tracks, but their small-scale looseness is rarely reflected on a macro scale.
TracklistA1 Screeching
A2 Kaanit
A3 Zaapp
B1 Loud
B2 Spuud
B3 Crayons