Cassegrain: Tiamat (Prologue)

With Tiamat, the duo of Alex Tsiridis and Hüseyin Evirgren have crafted a nice suite of minimal, buoyant techno tracks that would make the Basic Channel crowd proud. “Taiga” kicks things off with a great, dense underwater track, recalling the finer aquatic moments of Drexciya’s later material but with the poise and flow of vintage Porter Ricks. “Joule” picks up the pace considerably with a faster clip and more crisp sounds, all anchored by a hypnotic, endless bassline loop and overhead drones and overtones. The title track falls somewhere in between these aesthetics, with an urgency in its arrangement but with a confident and patient stride to propel it forward. For the most part, Tiamat oscillates between this dubbier, slower pace and something more alert and spry, with punchier and more immediate arrangements that rely less on delay and reverb for atmosphere. “Task” is such a case, with a layer of hiss to provide some added bite while bleeping patterns loop over a relentless kick drum. Fans of Sandwell District are definitely likely to approve, with each of these 6 tracks sounding as good on headphones as they no doubt would on a huge system.

Buy it: Prologue (Bandcamp) | Boomkat | Bleep | iTunes | Amazon