This two-track release by Perko on Numbers is the Glasgow-born, Copenhagen-based artist’s first release for the label since 2020’s The City Rings. Poking his head out of the foxhole of his solitary FELT imprint for a pair of productions featuring Huerco S. and Cucina Povera, “Prang” highlights Perko’s commitment to natural collaboration as a creative ideal.

“Prang” is a long-simmering dancefloor cut that was torn down and rebuilt alongside Huerco S. during a joint residency at HeimA in East Iceland in late 2022, capturing the immense scale of those surroundings and the accompanying isolation. The result is an undeniable club record – an unexpected but welcome result from the two producers – with ratcheting tension and acute impact that doesn’t sacrifice psychedelic detail.

The dust from this anxious energy settles in the ambient “Sisu.” Created via remote collaboration with Cucina Povera, her voice has a powerful resonance with the spacious production, offering a tonal reset from the A side. The wordless vocals are luminous in an otherwise foggy track, which was developed alongside Perko’s friend and collaborator Aethers Spring.

Suited for dancefloor peaks and calm mornings after, “Prang” reflects the pursuit of collaborative energies and intentions that combine to succeed as more than the sum of their parts.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The innovative Numbers label come through with a fresh new sound via Perko, Cucina Povera and Huerco S. Shimmering with electric elegance and with needle-point precision.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Prang Feat. Huerco S.
B1. Sisu Feat. Cucina Povera

Debut album by FFT, the result of three years of focused writing and programming by the London-based producer, ‘Clear’ is deeply psychedelic, defined by a mature sense of melody and structures crafted at a monumental scale.

Though FFT has previously released a handful of tracks under various names, it wasn’t until 2017’s ‘FFT1’ EP on the Uncertainty Principle label that his production talents began to fuse into a distinct and personal style, especially evident in FFT’s ‘Regional/Loss’ EP on The Trilogy Tapes in 2019, multiple releases on Bruk Records and 2021’s ‘Disturb Roqe’ also released on Numbers. Through it all, FFT has mastered a complex sense of mood catalyzed by sound itself: He builds patches and presets from scratch, and feels these synths and software have their own objectives and reactions, creating a kind of compositional feedback loop.The result is an album that brings to mind a collision of electronic pioneers like Delia Derbyshire and Bernard Parmegiani, 2000’s braindance, the Maximized wares of an OPN or Objekt and the rough rhythmatics of SND or Mika Vainio

The layering of sonic elements and intentions is starkly audible across these nine tracks. They can be seismically concussive and grandiose, but granular and fluid - echoing the Icelandic volcanic eruption that features in the artwork photography by George Cowan. ‘Clear (Eight-Circuit Mix)’sets a euphoric tone immediately accelerated by the jagged sounds and vocal textures of ‘Redeemer’. ‘3 Sided’ channels hyper-urbanity from its almost entirely analogue palette, and by contrast ‘Disturb Roqe 2’ is bracingly digital, gyrating in random cycles between clustered percussion, metallic splinters of audio and artificial vocal tics.

Opening side two, ‘You’ve Changed’ adheres to a more abrasive core, while ‘Heal’ and ‘Heal (Alt Mix)’evolved out of linked pieces in FFT’s live sets that grew into complete tracks in the months before Covid-19. The significant intensity of ‘Heal’ in particular was refined during strobe-heavy live performances and is the album at its most turbulent, the claustrophobia interrupted by dazzling arpeggios. The overall impact of 'Clear' is cinematic and precise, marking the arrival of an impressive electronic musician who is not new but has come into his own as a fully developed artist

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Crystalline, multidimensional soundscapes here from modern electronica artist FFT whose DSP-painted sonic canvasses take us into visionary, 5th world realms.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clear (Eight-Circuit Mix)
2. Redeemer
3. 3 Sided
4. Disturb Roqe 2
5. Clear
6. You’ve Changed
7. Heal
8. Heal (Alt Mix)
9. Ashley Hill