- Ben Gibson's music doesn't reveal much. Judging by his online presence (or lack thereof), there's likely a reason for that. All he gives you on his MySpace page at the moment is a bed, bath and beyond of static to look at. No bio, no chart, no nothing. You have to highlight his name to simply ensure you're in the right place. Broadly, Gibson makes techno. But like one of his obvious heroes, Jeff Mills, it's much more than that. The Collapse EP neatly encapsulates nearly every facet of Gibson's sound, from static-laden jack to mood-driven plodders. "Tensor" and "Span" provide the former, a duo of no-nonsense stormers that have what sound like the tiniest bit of static wrapped around the pounding kick drum. It gives both tracks a nervous quality, as if things could soon explode into something far more dangerous.
"Recombinant" has the same sort of edge, but puts it toward melodic ends. It's akin to Aphex's "Ventolin," though, in that it's hard to imagine why you'd ask such a filthy siren to provide such a lovely chord progression. (The point, of course.) The most striking moment of all, though, is the quiet hum of "Possess." It shows Gibson doing something that (as far as we know) he's rarely done before. You could even call it revealing.
Tracklist01. Tensor
02. Recombinant
03. Possess
04. Span