[Immerse Records]

Kidkut’s Bristol-based Immerse Records has always tread its own idiosyncratic path and 2010 has been no different, seeing releases from Russian producer Kontext, Canadian producer XI, Finnish producer Late as well as homegrown Bristol talent as usual. Immerse ends 2010 in typically unpredictable style with a techno single by Manaboo, better known as the collaboration between New York’s Brendon Moeller and Shigeru Tanabu, following their EP on Moeller’s own Steadfast label earlier this year.

“Delinquent” is eight minutes of smooth, mellifluous techno, floating on the same fluffy chords that power Moeller’s dub techno under his own name. But under the guidance of Tanabu, his dub tendencies are kept in check by a twitching breakbeat, the chords peeking out from behind the skittering percussion before being snuffed out prematurely. The way the gauzy sounds occasionally swell and overwhelm the beat recalls current trends in UK bass music, and it’s hard not to connect the distinctively skippy beat with the wave of garage revival sweeping that same scene. Not to mention the tempo, whizzing by at a brisk 132 beats per minute.

That UK influence comes to the fore on the flipside “SB Massive,” which plays the pretender for its first minute as a dubbed-out techno crawl, before the bass drops and brings dubstep-oriented syncopation along with it. As the drums pummel the earth, dual chords rotate in tandem, forming an axis around a rusty kick for a progression so entrancing the heavily treated vocals almost float by unnoticed. It’s a fascinating piece of ethereal techno that’s almost as fun to dissect and examine as it is to listen to. Moeller once again reaffirms his primacy in the dub techno chain, finding new frontiers for the sound to diffuse into and fascinating collaborators with which to guide it along.