fresh from starting his own label insult to injury, timothy clerkin returns to ransom note records with the knife edge heart ep. three tracks of stirring techno for dark basements and warm hearts. timothy is a very interesting man, but hes also the sort of person whod rather let his music do the talking, so well move on swiftly. the mvp here is knife edge heart, an unabashed pop song whose shimmering exterior is cut through with flashes of steely darkness. frequent collaborator natalie reiss’ glacial voice is held at the perfect level of remove, while timothy allows his love of shoegaze to blossom with a guitar line that seems to extend like a ladder to the stars. with you bridges timothys opposing impulses, balancing sparkling synths and a celestial vocal sample with churning low-end, while divisive is paranoid warehouse techno at its very best. with his debut solo album out soon on phantasy, gabe gurnsey of factory floor stops by for a lurching, seasick remix of knife edge heart that sounds like the onset of the robot apocalypse weve all been promised for so long. after cutting his teeth as one half of eskimo twins, timothy launched his solo career in 2014 under the now-retired heretic moniker. hes since released on labels including throne of blood, hard fist and days of being wild. timothys last release on rsn was the serenade ep, which brought us plenty of special moments last year - most memorably andrew weatherall closing out his houghton quarry set with execute. heres to many more this summer and beyond.
