Precision tooled, shapeshifting electro functions from the french fella behind RAAR records with collaborator Louisahhh!!!, making his debut LP mark on Sheffield’s leading electronic music label.
Rejoining CPU three years since a hook-up with Fasme, Maelstrom refracts a spectrum of braindance-related styles across ‘The FM Tapes’, all united by a personalised palette of battery-tang melody and stinging percussion wrought in robust yet elegantly intricate rhythms that explore diversity within a style indebted to everyone from the Analord to Heinrich Mueller and Uwe Schmidt. Trust there’s proper artillery for DJs and dancers, but it all holds together in a bigger album picture.
The 11 tracks prove dextrous programming infused with shards of cold emotion in the shifts from weightless space station ambient on ‘Ondes Courtes’ to the head-messing physics of ‘Upside Down DX7’ and the plucky nuance of his ‘Algo Tango’. Prime body movers ‘Trempo’ and ‘My Digittone’ stand out for their tricksy, cattle prod percussive attack and nasty ass bass torque, and he’s equally, durably, impressive in the pendulous electrophysix of ‘Alt50ser’ and ‘Target003’, whilst the shine-eyed lustre of ‘Res 06’ and ’Suede’ best show off his feel for haunting melody.
| A1 | Ondes Courtes |
| A2 | Alt50ser |
| A3 | La Vie Sociale Des Sons |
| A4 | My Digitone |
| A5 | Res 06 |
| A6 | Suede |
| B1 | Target003 |
| B2 | The Operator |
| B3 | Trempo |
| B4 | Upside Down DX7 |
| B5 | Algo Tango |
