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12"
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MATH 013EP
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Brainmath returns from a three year hiatus with a woozy 12" of dubstep and electronics from Acre, following up his incredible debut album for Tectonic, Better Strangers (TEC 021CD/TEC 089LP, 2015). "City" features Chiba.
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CD
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TEC 021CD
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Better Strangers is the debut album by Manchester, England-based producer Acre, following EPs on Tectonic (TEC 080EP, 2014), its sister label Cold Recordings, and Visionist's collaboration with PAN, Codes (CDS 001EP, 2015). As influenced by rave, jungle, grime, and techno as by electronica, ambient, and drone, his EP releases have been rhythm-driven snapshots of other-worldliness spliced with dancefloor sensibilities. Acre has sought to explore a wider variety of textures on Better Strangers to re-contextualize elements from UK bass music and bring them away from the dancefloor and into new possibilities. "I tried to include more emotion in this album than my previous releases and wanted to represent a broader side of my productions. The title 'Better Strangers' comes from the feeling that some people make better strangers than friends (or better off being strangers) in your life, and the album is about recognising that." --Acre
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2LP
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TEC 089LP
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Double LP version. Better Strangers is the debut album by Manchester, England-based producer Acre, following EPs on Tectonic (TEC 080EP, 2014), its sister label Cold Recordings, and Visionist's collaboration with PAN, Codes (CDS 001EP, 2015). As influenced by rave, jungle, grime, and techno as by electronica, ambient, and drone, his EP releases have been rhythm-driven snapshots of other-worldliness spliced with dancefloor sensibilities. Acre has sought to explore a wider variety of textures on Better Strangers to re-contextualize elements from UK bass music and bring them away from the dancefloor and into new possibilities. "I tried to include more emotion in this album than my previous releases and wanted to represent a broader side of my productions. The title 'Better Strangers' comes from the feeling that some people make better strangers than friends (or better off being strangers) in your life, and the album is about recognising that." --Acre
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12"
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TEC 080EP
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Manchester's Acre glides across sonic landscapes of grime, techno, and industrial/experimental with ease on this EP, melding a jilted sense of other-worldliness seamlessly with dancefloor sensibilities. "Ping" kicks the EP off, its raucousness tearing from the offset, soon to be joined by toxic breakbeats bouncing off the walls, screaming its demented jungle war-cry at 125bpm. "Blue Moon" references grime instrumentals of years past, while "Icon" sounds a bit like Shackleton might if he made his beats on a Gameboy. Finally, "Reload" winds down the EP at a more relaxed pace, yet is loaded with future-bass science and other mind-melting sounds.
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CD
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ACE 023CD
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"This album has been a long, long time coming but the wait has most certainly been worth it. Aaron Davis has been firing missile after missile as Acre for some years now, but nothing else stands out as his defining moment quite like Sacrifice. This opus has been in the pipeline for years, being etched out of silver and rising from pile of ash after pile of ash. It's absolutely monumental, totally epic in scope. Each thick slab of heavy droning sibilance is a testament to Davis' vision and attention to detail. It will suck you in immediately and stick to you like glue. Notably there are no synthesizers or guitars anywhere on Sacrifice. When you hear the density of sound and variety in the sonic textures blowing out your speakers it seems utterly impossible. Yet, here we are. As the opening blasts of 'Badland'" echo through your skull at 100 mph, the horizon seems lost in a thick, white haze. Everything else stops and shuts down. Subtle shifts in trajectory are barely noticeable at first, but by the end of the journey you've landed on a completely different plane. Surface to air, infinite flight; all achieved in just over 14 minutes. It's not all a blown-out, straight-to-the-skull masterpiece. 'Live Take' feels positively smooth and silky in comparison. Reverberating tones drenched in pure light bleed nothing but effervescence and life. Everything feels exactly in the spot it should be, there's no detritus or collateral damage to speak of. Davis runs a tight ship, only letting things bolt for the door and scream over the edge when its absolutely necessary. In the end, the biggest thing about Sacrifice is just how massive it feels. From the beginning, it's a string of endless symphonic hypnosis. Acre's compositions are as precise as ever here, each note and each path carefully chosen and dropped into place. No synths. No guitars. No laptops. No looping. Yeah. It's time to start dropping bombs."
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