Bleep

After a few years away Rolando Simmons returns to 030303 Records with a new LP. On Human Touch we find the producer turning out another set of instrumentals that run the gauntlet of electro, bleep-techno, IDM and all related styles.

You get the sense that Simmons has taken real care over how this record flows. The album begins cautiously, with the slow, enigmatic electro tune ‘Natron’ followed by ‘Dew’, a pretty blend of skittering IDM drums and Italo Disco bass. Even album’s third song and title track, a swift Braindance-breakbeat hybrid, prioritises harmonious chords over slamming rhythms.

However, this feeling of calm doesn’t last long, and the intensity of Human Touch picks up as it progresses. By the time we’ve got to the halfway mark we’re into full-on party mode, with ‘Hydrogen Line’ a wiggly bit of freakbeat. ‘Frozen Lemonade’ flips the priorities of ‘Dew’ by making melody subservient to a crunchy four-to-the-floor, and both ‘Langelo’ and ‘Star Field’ snap in the vein of primetime Drexciya. Penultimate cut ‘Hidden Groves’ has a wiggly electro-funk thing going on until some superb breakbeat programming kicks the track into overdrive. However, Human Touch ends as it starts, the stargazing ‘Smiley Face’ a perfect companion piece to opener ‘Natron’.

While still delivering the kind of club innovations that we know he’s capable of, with Human Touch Rolando Simmons has also made one of his most coherent musical statements.