[Time To Express]

Whether by coincidence or design, Peter Van Hoesen seemed blessed with good timing in 2008. After spending the better part of the decade producing as Object and Vanno to little fanfare, the Belgian producer suddenly found an enthusiastic audience for the brawny techno cuts released under his own name on his own label, Time to Express, and Lan Music. Berghain residents Ben Klock, Marcel Dettmann and Norman Nodge were all noted fans, the audiences they decimated with his tracks were just as keen, and he easily topped LWE’s breakout artists list. Van Hoesen seems poised to leave his mark on 2009 as well, starting with the “Attribute One EP.”

At surface level Van Hoesen’s tracks appear rendered with an industrial sized brush, their broad shouldered rhythms carrying gut-busting bass lines. Yet further investigation exposes finer details that are the legacy of Van Hoesen’s time as a sound designer. Such is the case with “Attribute One,” whose resonating synth line hints at harboring more dimensions in its single-minded girth. Indeed, sharper crystalline melodies eventually claw their way to the forefront apace with twitchy minutiae to add bite to blunt force. MLZ’s rendition, however, bares its teeth from the start. Its colorless synth barrage at Gatling gun speeds and belching acid bass line imagine a scuzzy war machine mowing down all in its path. Van Hoesen’s “Above 90” is equally stomping, but the sound design surrounding its thundering riff is the main attraction. Noises slither by, churn with the tide, hiss and gurgle and generally create an apocalyptic environment, only a thin suggestion of tone color lining from the horizon. Peter Van Hoesen and Time To Express are more than punching their weight and the “Attribute One EP” is a mighty first blow in the side of 2009.