Outstanding DJ/producer Kutmah re-calibrates classic electro and wave memes to a London-via-LA hip hop tempo for Ninja Tune's Technicolour series. Coming from a background steeped in NWA and Suicide, it makes perfect sense, and dovetails nicely with the recent resurgence of interest around figures such as Richard H Kirk, whose Cabaret Voltaire were pivotal crossing borders between industrial and urban funk. There's six tracks on offer, ranging from the Neon Judgement-sampling killah 'Noise In My Brain' to the low-riding crunch and EBM prods of 'Tranzition' featuring Zackey Force Funk on vocals, or the slo-mo, singed circuitry of 'Agalmato' featuring Seven Davis Jr, and over to the mutant bumps of 'Coprolalia' and 'Amargossa', or the crushing, Dabrye-style lurch of 'Leaving'.
Our Mannequin conjures up the spirit of early electronic music in more ways than one. His funk-ridden drums and bass, synths that drench over the ear like waves, and filtered, robotic vocals hark back to German synth-wave and post-punk. The difference is the in the tempo, which clearly demarcates Kutmah's roots in the LA-via-London, leftfield beat scene.
His early musical axis ran between Suicide and NWA, influences that go some way to representing the originality you hear in his music. It was after he was deported back to the UK from LA that he `locked himself in a room and made this dark record.' He brought the EPs collaborators into the shadows with him. `Zackey Force Funk usually make's thug dance music,' Kutmah says, `and Seven Davis JR will never do a record like this again.'
