Solenoid

***Common Language is a project of the Community Library label. We started it as a way to reconnect with the ideas that drove ComLib’s inaugural releases back in 2005, uncompromising and eclectic DJ 12’s. We’ll be focused on this imprint for a while, and near-term, putting the emphasis on releases by label cofounders and our closest friends. On CLANG02, the Middlemarch 12” EP, Solenoid transmutes his signature buoyant syncopated acid, electro, and mutant techno into moodier, reverberant territory. If you previously knew Solenoid for his restless, sophisticated Braindance-adjacent stuff, this EP is totally consistent with his long discography. Here though, he gets into a dreamier, and also bassier zone that is equally rewarding either in the innerspace immersion of headphones or in the warmth of your favorite local underground club’s sound system—lots of detail and atmosphere to sink into.

“Middlemarch” is moody deep techno—a clatter of distant percussion encircles eerie pads and an extra-bassy, double-filtered TB303 bassline. “Ways and Means” rotates perplexing polyrhythmic patterns driven by bright, elastic chords that keep it moving (reminding me of The Martian’s stuff on Red Planet a bit). “A Winter Walk” offers a skeletal, skittering rhythm that wouldn’t be out of place next to a Livity Sound track; and the closer, “Dvv Waltz” reserves a 3/4-time experiment for the bravest / most inquisitive DJs.

Edition of 300 copies with special full-color insert.