Bleep

Firecracker (Fudge Fingas, Vakula) present this EP of slightly somnambulant techno from Other Lands. The lime-and-pomegranate cover artwork for Pattern Transform provides an apt metaphor for the record - dreamy and hazy, yet also full of potent textures and some garish sounds. A-sides ‘Descent Into Nasqueron’ and ‘Chapel Perilous Closed’ are sort-of-danceable numbers that will also sound good zoning out to in your bedroom. The scuttling beatwork of the former, especially when set against the slightly-too-distorted-for-comfort synths, is particularly interesting. ‘Late Feeling Yourself’ is the most obvious club fodder, and again the creepy synths sound like an exercise in bizarro-Balearicism. Overall Pattern Transform most recalls the likes of Pye Corner Audio - tuneful and groovy, yet with a feeling that something unexpected lurks around every corner.