after a break from solo production for his own blueprint label, during which he released a well-received album ( the dash ) on the mighty tresor, and a brace of singles as o/v/r (with regis), james ruskin returns to home-ground with a cracking two-tracker. sabre is a classic ruskin production, booming bottom-end and a mind-mangling filtered fx loop swirling around over the top. deceptively simple production that is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, as all good techno should be. on the flipside, massk follows a similar template, with only 5 or 6 parts throughout the whole track, but the subtle changes in arrangement lure the listener in to the deep and dark world of mr ruskin...