[sic] - Substance Abuse/Vermin

I'll admit I'm a bit biased here, cos Dan Jeffries AKA [sic] is a mate of mine… but this EP rocks all the same if you're looking for some tuff, techy bizniss. In all, you get three mixes of Substance Abuse – from Rektchordz, The Occult and Wasabi – plus bonus cut Vermin.

Having been a big fan of Wasabi's releases on Erase, his was the mix I was most excited about, but while his driving heads-down rub is still good, I'm actually preferring Rektchordz' take – gotta love that fat squelch bass! The Occult's mix is a bit too dark for me, but there you go.

Finally, Vermin is evidence of Dan's ongoing love of glitchy minimal techno and as such, wouldn't do much for me normally… except this is glitchy minimal techno with a big rumbling bassline that has 'early speed garage' written all over it (it makes me think of Baffled Republic's Bad Boys Move In Silence in particular). Which is definitely interesting.

All told, a very strong EP from this fast-rising Bristol producer.

Out: This week

About: This is on local (ie, Bristol) label AUX, who I gather are quite the techno stalwarts and as such you probably know more about 'em than I do… anyway, here's their MySpace and website, and instead I'll tell you that when he's not producing tuff, dark tech-house and minimal, Dan also has a strange obsession with TV theme tunes.

S'true, y'know... when we had our Sunday session Original Sound Track going on, he came down and played two hours of the music from Happy Days and Neighbours and stuff. Went down really well, actually.