Off the back of ‘Headhunt/Nettles’ released on Jakwob’s Boom Ting Recordings last year, Lokua returns in full force with this three-track offering on Artifice this April. Lokua’s brand of wonky hybridized techno, as made famous by Swamp 81 and Hessle Audio, has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts in the last year with new faces like Agrippa, Yak and Silias and Snare as well as more established names coming back into the fold to champion sounds not dissimilar to those heard on Rinse FM a fair bit in 2010-12. Having only booted up a Soundcloud account about 9 months ago, the Bristol-based producer has gone from strength to strength with support and radio plays coming from the likes of Madam X, Paleman, Randomer, Benji B and Lamont.

The EP kicks off with ‘Blurred,’ a four-to- the-floor workout complete with near-
endless delay, some creepy ambient samples and sustained drone notes. This trippy treatment makes for a song that manages to be both functional enough to work in a club setting whilst being multifaceted enough to be enjoyed via headphones, something we can’t say for a lot of techno being put out at the moment!

Things are switched up pretty dramatically on ‘Footwork’ where a disorienting array of percussive elements and synth bleeps blend together into a dense texture, brilliantly complementing the pacey and syncopated kick drums underneath. This blending of UK Funky drum patterns and acid house is the sort of daring experimentation we’ve come to expect from Bristolian producers. For the final minute of the tune, elements of the track seem to be disintegrating and falling in on each other as a tape delay effect seems to consume everything in the mix. There’s definitely something Pinch-esque about this track even if it’s hard to pin-point the exact reasons for this assertion, other than vaguely mentioning the similarities in the ‘atmosphere’ their productions seem to share.

Lokua closes with another heaving-hitting 4x4 track in the form of ‘Stimulate.’ The track’s main melody has been filtered and processed so much that it’s quite hard to tell where the sound originated from: synth or sample? Guitar or keys? ‘Stimulate’ is a great display of Lokua’s measured approach to production, with the variation in the weight of the kick drum and the width of the mix making it easy to see this tune going off in a DC-10 or Berghain environment.

Lokua has cemented himself as an up and coming talent who wholly deserves the amount of radio rips he’s been sporting on his SoundCloud of late. The EP manages to be an extremely cohesive techno release whilst sporting enough variety to keep listeners and ravers alike on their toes.

Artifice
Release date:
29 April 2017