Lifecycle – Broken Tech Sketches EP
Dance music is terrible for its seemingly endless need to create new genres and sub-genres. An eternal need for differentiation. A legacy of its past as a music that was pointing towards the future. Here’s one new to me. Broken tech is the genre and title of Lifecycle’s new EP on Ricochet Records. Listen or buy.
Broken tech is a combination of techno and breakbeat. Lifecycle explains further ““I was collecting tracks over the winter to put together a broken tech DJ mix, looking for connections between strands of broken techno and the more hypnotic side of breakbeat… as well as finding links, I also stumbled upon peculiar gaps separating aspects of both. These tracks came together spontaneously in the studio as a result, filling holes in the mix and helping me come to terms with what the hell broken tech actually sounds like.”
Broken Weasel starts the EP and has the sub-bass from breakbeats but the beats from techno. A moody little so and so. Best track on the EP. My Wasted Chances is closer to techno. Even has a bit of melody from the block chimes. Obnoxiorama owes least to breakbeat. It’s a more conventional piece of gentle electronica but with enough sub-bass to darken the mood. There are two remixes. ADJ remixes Broken Weasel and Sir Real remixes Obnoxiorama. The latter is the stronger adding a bit of offbeat jazz timing into the mix. An EP for the head not the heart.
Blurb: Following the abstract ‘Voodoo Addendum EP’ on Hungary’s Glack Audio, Lifecycle returns to Ricochet for three upfront bass experiments with a mutated hybrid of broken-beats and alternative techno. The sinister ‘Broken Weasel’ kicks things off straight from the deep end, dancefloor impact drawn from waves of sub-bass and tightly interlocking breakbeats. A more melodic fusion follows with the tribal beat of ‘My Wasted Chances’, relentless driving techno pierced by jagged breaks and unusual harmonies. Things are brought to a subtly apocalyptic conclusion with the rolling ‘Obnoxiorama’, progressive electronica scattered with loose, organic percussion and optimistic euphoria. First up on remix duties is ADJ (Touchin’ Bass / Pyramid Transmissions), delivering a no- nonsense, straight-up electro reworking of ‘Broken Weasel’. The EP is completed by Sir Real (Satamile / krack-tronik), developing a funky take on ‘Obnoxiorama’ with jazz breakbeats and swirling psychedelics.
