[Laid]

I’m never quite sure what goes into an artist’s decision to start a new alias. Some reserve certain monikers for certain labels, others tie these assumed identities to different sounds. Palisade is a new production name for everyone’s favorite red-masked techno superhero, Redshape, and yet it doesn’t sound like a particularly big departure for him sonically. Best defer to the man himself here: so what? Regardless of whether or not Palisade’s Laid debut is a cheeky jab at nagging journalists like myself, it’s best to take his remark in stride and listen to the 12″ without any expectations.

“So What?” opens with a low-pitched and low-resolution voice repeating the title’s mantra while percussion lays down the foundation. A Rhodes-alike melody is the main attraction here, one that is simple, effective, and refreshingly unquantized. As the track progresses Palisade introduces Rhodes vamps on top of the reduced beats and atmospheres. It’s a really neat tune that sticks in your head and is sure to be a highlight of deeper-focused sets. “18:30” on the flip evokes the time of day that its title references in its dusk-laden dubby house grooves. Laid began with the intention of exploring the deeper parts of house music, and So What? is the label’s deepest, most unusual to date; another high point for both a label and a producer whose catalogs are full of them.