For over 15 years, Valentín Corujo and Héctor Sandoval have pushed the hard-edged Iberian sound with their project Exium. For me, their story began with “Unemotional” on Sunn, a memorable techno EP from the last decade, and ever since they have been supplying tracks with strong floor appeal.
Frequent live and DJ sets and several EPs per year mean that Exium is a hard-working entity and it is not surprising to see three releases coming out this spring. Besides of Detroit Underground and Mord, an EP drops on Oscar Mulero’s home label PoleGroup. And the “Rotating Frames” is a serious big room takeover: Granular techno with tough loops serves the DJs who really want to see the people dance instead of hanging out at the bar.
The release is like riding a straight line on a highway. All four tracks rely on similar patterns and only gaseous substructures make the scrubbing “Monopoles” slightly different. “Magnetic Flux” and “Rotating Frames” are the ones that hit the jackpot here.
Immediate reaction could be that this type of techno is heard a million of times and this assumption is not totally wrong for “Rotating Frames” either. In a way it is a sediment of production techniques we have seen during the last two decades. However, the seasoned duo from Asturias knows a thing about stimulating grooves and the EP’s lifespan exceeds well the average of club fare.
Points: 8 of 10
Buy vinyl / digital from PoleGroup
Buy vinyl from Juno
Buy vinyl from Triple Vision