Bleep

This is where Livity Sound’s second defining characteristic comes in handy: Tess Redburn's artwork. A redress to the greyscale monotony of techno, Redburn’s expressive designs are instantly recognisable to discerning dance fans, with a rare fluidity and playfulness – imagine if Matisse was into Mosca, and you’re there. Crucially, the label sheds its aesthetic and thematic skin and is reborn every year or so, with a change in sleeve marking out each phase of Livity Sound as distinct. Even as the originally 12”-only label branched into artist albums from the likes of Forest Drive West and Peverelist himself, this evolutionary step felt under control, a natural branching out. Everything in the Livity universe happens for a reason.

In 2014, the onus was solely on remixes from the likes of MMM, Stenny & Andrea and Beneath, so a stripped-back two-tone design was the go, a nod to the simplicity and power of dubplates. In 2015-16 came a series of softly-rendered, tangle-limbed bodies; then in 2017, a reduction of these silhouettes onto block colour. And so to 2019-20, where geometric shapes and pastel palettes catch the eye and a new crop of artists have entered the label, right on cue.

2020 has been possibly Livity Sound’s strongest year yet, which you can’t always say for a club label nine years into its existence. Azu Tiwaline’s "Magnetic Service" was a summer highlight, as the Côte d’Ivoire-born producer parlayed the transcendental chants of her Tunisian heritage into an electronic context, replete with a beautiful amount of space. A pair of young producers, Kouslin and Lack, rejected the orthodoxy of fast techno by going in the opposite direction: LIVITY038 and 039 are dubby, mellow and mid-tempo, like Claro Intelecto in his prime.

DJ Plead’s "Going For It" exudes the most flair of this year’s crop overall, a relatively rare example of a Livity 12” crashing straight into the heart of a dancefloor. The avowed fan of Timbaland’s golden era is not one for polite build-ups. Instead he challenges himself to deploy as many organic drums sounds together as possible, and it works. Plead’s EP brings the thrust and bounce of the label back to its spruced-up origins, coming full circle in a way that readies Livity for a 10th anniversary charge in 2021.

First though, Livity Sound’s banner 2020 will wrap up with two autumnal releases: in October comes "3 x 2", the second Livity/Ytivil release from Bakongo, aka Roska. Though Roska is one of the truest banger powerhouses of the 21st century, his innate talent for the rhythmic tension of UK funky doesn’t require kicks and snares ramping up to 11 every time. "3 x 2" makes his case as a peerless percussive master with restraint.

In November arrives "A Violet Sleep", the debut from Surgeons Girl, an artist out of Bristol whose moniker appears to come (fittingly) from Wire’s austere classic "Pink Flag". Surgeons Girl’s style breaks new ground for Livity Sound, with overlapping synths and pads that are simultaneously spiky and becalming, melodic and bracing. The EP’s standout, “Clouded Temper,” has a mesh of staccato notes and deep-listening atmospheric swirl which paints a serene scene, as if fat globs of rain are striking a reflecting pool at dusk.

Tess Redburn’s artwork for A Violet Sleep, which might be the last in this run, shows a series of pastel panels at tilted angles. They look for all the world like the entrance to a secluded grotto or maze, a proposition both curious and alluring, practically beckoning you forward to explore. Which is a perfect description for the subtle, winding majesty of Livity Sound at large, too.