[Moustache Techno]

For their inaugural release, Moustache Records’ Techno Series has commissioned Gesloten Cirkel (evidently the work of a guy named Ratsnake) to follow up his 2009 debut for Murder Capital with a four-track EP. Like that record, the new EP contains four lightly blurred dance tracks, appropriately edgy and raw for the Dutch scene that birthed it but also touched with a personal dreaminess.

“Yamagic” is a bit like a half-asleep EBM piece. The track pairs chopped-up vocals and a blearily fetching, filtered-down loop in an arrangement that’s simultaneously aggressive and detached. “Moustache” is a bit more low-key, featuring a couple thin layers of interwoven patterns, filtered calmly and methodically. “Insummer” builds on a strained, fluttery melody and metallic percussion, and quickly launches into some Sound Stream-style stop-start loop action. It’s summery as the title suggests, but more heavy heat haze than solid good times, laced with a particularly disquieting, noisy undercurrent.  Finally, the minimal, smudgily acidic “Slample” is marked by a repeating sound that might be a record being scratched. It lands on the right side of cloying, as its ambiguity sits well with the mechanical sounds around it.  The EP is pretty blunt as a whole, but its weird, indistinct hooks end up warranting a lot of repeat plays.