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Down the Grand River Ave. at nightfall
John Selway’s and Jason ‘BPMF’ Szostek’s imprint Serotonin has sent obvious signals of being back from what seemed a retirement. A crucial role in the label’s new mission has played Synapse, a project of the two label founders. Now, after two EPs for the home label, the duo is making a stopover on Jack Murphy’s well-curated Knowing Something with the material retrieved from Synapse’s 1990s archives.
Actually I went for the B-side’s “Untitled #4”. The track initially appeared in 1995 on BPMF’s “Button EP” (Rancho Relaxo) and the unedited version soaked in acid rain seemed very promising. Indeed it’s a bumpy 13-minute ride in an electromobile across the wilderness of quirky oscillations and crunchy caustics.
But a surprise winner for me is “Night Moves”, which is attracted by the Motor City lights and heading at the nightfall to the area of operations of Fragile or 430 West. With sluggish Aphex-like bass, shiny synth serpentines and warm chords, much-abused style reference ‘electro house’ describes well this finely balanced cohabitation of two genres.