Bleep

Up until recently, the story of altrice was one of the great 'what if's' in dance music history. Virtually unknown prior to winning a 2010 Caribou remix contest, Dan Snaith was so moved by altrice’s rework of ‘Sun’ that he invited the Tucson, Arizona based producer the keys to all Caribou’s Swim, eventually culminating in a full remix album entitled stem. And then, aside from an equally beguiling Radiohead edit, altrice simply faded from public consciousness.

However, sporadic correspondence between altrice and Snaith kept up throughout the years, and with guidance, an EP of solo material was slowly put together. Maintaining the intense energy of that initial contest-winning entry while branching out into other modes, textures, and subgenres, the end result is something well worth the 12 year wait. Sequenced with the feel of an eclectic, but formidable DJ set, it comes as no surprise that the likes of Avalon Emerson, Floating Points, and Mano Le Tough (among many others) started reaching for these tracks long before their official release.

The compciter ep kicks off with the dustily emotional ‘bda creature’. Somehow both lo-fi and expansive at the same time, the track’s gargantuan low end seems to stretch infinitely in both directions. Meanwhile, the finger picked guitars on ‘eyes’ add a nice light touch to yet another heaving kick drum workout. altrice wraps things up ‘yoni’. What initially sounds like a badly rendered field recording of a nightclub folds into a slinky house strut that keeps threatening to fall off the rails before a quick platter adjustment kicks the track into gear for one last spin around the dancefloor. It feels like a hard-earned victory lap.