ultra limited

first release in 5 years from us-born, lisbon-based musician m.o.o.n. dark, moody, and heavy dance and downtempo. double vinyl release in full colour gatefold sleeve.

new york native shawn o’sullivan returns to avian as 400ppm with debut lp, ‘fit for purpose’.
as an artist, o’sullivan has long since explored the juncture between hard-hitting, functional dance floor material and more lofty, conceptual work. from a purely structural standpoint, the artist’s return to avian bears all the hallmarks of previous output under the alias, utilising the same palette found on early ep’s for guy brewer’s label. stripped back and driven, the music marries caustic drum-machine polyrhythms with warping, pitch bent leads and characteristically atmospheric use of reverb. it’s a decidedly dance floor offering, but the music comes refracted through o’sullivan’s own lens, with plenty of elegant references to a career spent exploring much of the techno genre’s periphery, from noise to new wave. crushed vox bubble up from beneath wrought-iron percussion and the artist takes time to step away from high energy 4×4 workouts to explore more complex rhythmic structures and harsh, low tempo grooves.

foam fangs could be a term used to describe silks preferred take on that too-easily dismissed 70s dancefloor dementia of disco – the soft bite, love nibble, mirrorball on steady/ready perma-revolve. jesse reiner (jonas reinhardts first mister, alongside past/part-time collaborators like phil manley of trans am and damon palermo of mi ami/magic touch), who never quite had the kranky krinkle of his ohm-ambient labelmates, travels head-on, tomorrowland-style, through long-form cosmic moroder constellations of >foam fangs<. nothing frothy about it, though there is a bit of the rubbery in reiner’s bounce-about, cool, funky kraut-disco. suddenly we are beaming back to a time when the world looked forward, envisioning a 21st century decked with silver, chrome, and neoprene. it is a sonic space both transparent and shiny, the metallic ding and cold ribbon of data, scrolling through infinite space. the opener, >foam fangs<, transports us instantly into an ever-expanding universe of sound and light at once fanning out and folding in on itself. variations on that theme continue as the jonas journey oscillates through the beat-beyond.