Bleep

Ruth Mascelli, a member of New Orleans four piece Special Interest, spreads their creative wings on this debut solo release for Disciples. A complete "audio diary of adventures had at various bathhouses, dark rooms, and gay clubs while on tour with Special Interest and traveling on my own" built with an array of vintage scuzzed out analogue gear. Mascelli is able to effortlessly conjure a contrasting range of sounds - ranging from patient and considered ambient trips to smoky Berlin basement slams.

Mascelli wastes no time in setting the mood, with ‘Sauna’ launching into intoxicated, scuffed techno from the outset. ‘Petri Dish’ ventures into heads down, hallucinogenic roller turf rotating around a resonant ritualistic bassline. There’s dark, nightcruising house trax in ‘One For The Voyeurs’ and ‘Sunrise’, offset by pranged out acid throwdowns like ‘Libidinal Surplus’. Perhaps a misleading name, ‘Circle of Shit’ is one of the more subtle moments - slo-mo half-time techno painting a picture of a bleary sunrise stagger. ‘Missing Men’ is a fulfilling closer landing like the unwelcome morning sun with lurid distorted synth leads taking a stance closer to work of Alessandro Cortini than the techno productions set out earlier.

A Night At The Baths is an incredibly assured debut album for the raw techno heads, modular freaks and followers of Special Interests’ own industrial juggernaut sound in equal measure.