incl cd, when promoting the release of figure-ground’s ‘ep 5’, released december 2016 it was finally announced that the previously anonymous modular duo were in fact dronelock’s alexander church and boris brenecki from ontal. so now the cat’s out of the bag it seems fitting that figure-ground should have this outing on the dronelock / ontal co-run label, shadow story. add to that a collaboration with one of the uk’s finest electronic artists and figure-ground fan, paul mac and you know you’re set for some beautifully worked productions from this trio of talent. teasing and playing with the hardware throughout the ep, they’ve stayed within the realms of techno to create mind-melting and dance floor devastation across 6 tracks. from ‘virtues values & venom’ itself that opens with gusto, before erratic beat experimentation on ‘eightfold path’, the frenetic ‘digital dialectic’, which also gets a second more staccato outing on version 2, ‘noble habitus’ with its machine-funk to the subterranean ‘nativism’, it’s obviously been an enjoyable ride and that translates to the listener.