The Irish duo Lakker's new EP doesn't immediately clamor for attention; its dusky chords and grainy wash at first sound of a piece with scads of similarly sepulchral techno right now. But they've got a couple of things going for them. One is range: Stretching in tempo from 120 beats per minute all the way up to 138, these four tracks cover chugging, peak-time dub techno, downcast dirge-house and flickering techno/garage hybrids. The other is execution, as their static-infused productions gradually open up to reveal a wealth of sumptuous detail--distant bells, feathery shakers, melodies that wilt like flowers, dripping faded color over a grey tangle of stalks.
Across the four tracks, they strike up various conversations: the slow, sorrowful "Arc" sounds like a response to the lead-weighted style of recent Modern Love releases, while the glowering, brutish "BKRO" is clearly targeted at a space like Berghain. "ED" and "Evening Lemon" find common ground with Shed, Juk Juk, Peverelist and other purveyors of broken, quickstep rhythms, but they're also the most distinctive of the set, topping off snapping, contorted rhythms with wispy melodies and subliminally mixed field recordings. Fans of Function's "Inter," in particular, will get their emotional fix from the bittersweet "Evening Lemon."
