teshno

18-odd months after first appearing on aus (albeit as a co-signatory alongside the artist formerly known as ramadanman) a lot has changed in midland’s world. where he was initially lumped in with the dubstep2.0 scene, a number of remixes, an ep and a fact mix have blown that association right out of the water. seemingly as free-roaming as bristol boy bashmore, the leeds loiterer has surfed on through breakbeats and garage in 2011, though always whilst maintaining an omnipresent house thread.

‘shelter’ is pure mood music, pregnant with an impending sense of doom that never quite manifests itself. mainly because of the roaming, moaning and groaning synth which pans endlessly across an apocalyptic, terminator-style landscape of smoking embers and charred debris.   cutting through the thick, dark ambiance, a woody and buoyant combination of drums and percussion try to outrun the searchlight-esque shadow cast by the synth, and that brings with it a finely crafted and unavoidably evocative tension.

‘through motion’ is the cautiously optimistic new light that would seep through following the cloudy events documented in ‘shelter’: opening with the initial stirrings of life (or what sound like knocks on wood and the rolling of marbles across a board) a beat quickly appears and pads out a melancholic pattern that hints at better days ahead. tonal echoes add colour, minor keys add emotion and eventually you’re allowed to let out some pent-up elation when a pitched-up female vocal cry comes as a welcome (though far from gratuitous) release: it makes for a beautifully heart warming moment.  two fulsome (in terms of sound design rather than load) productions, then, that operate in mature mental spheres a world away from most…. trus’ aus to bring the best out of someone. 

(ps:  if you buy it digitally – which you shouldn’t, ‘cos these here midland sounds are ripe for hearing through an authentic vinyl crackle – you get a bonus tevo howard remix.)