Bleep

Techno innovator Nicolas Bougaïeff delivers his long-awaited debut LP via Novamute. The Upward Spiral delivers on the promise of EPs like Cognitive Resonance by using booming warehouse techno production as a trojan horse with which to disguise some dense ideas about music, philosophy and techno’s place in oppositional culture. There is something intense about how Bougaïeff deploys synths here, making them work both with and against the beat in order to create tracks that are both immediately danceable and also rather hypnotic. While Ostgut Ton and the Birmingham school are clear influences on The Upward Spiral, tracks such as ‘Inexadorable’ also demonstrate an affinity for industrial, noise and EBM.