Comfortnoise Ploy
Three Strands

Comfortnoise: ...Ever since it was founded in 2003, Comfortnoise has featured events, podcasts, and texts rotating around mighty basslines in Techno and Dub. Now, NEW.COM («new-dot-com»), head of Comfortnoise, emerges with four of his own productions exploring the depths of dancefloor, even soundsystem-oriented music:«Mountainous Conquest» piles up a ground-shaking bassline interspersed with breezy percussion and a fragmented melodica theme. «Mental Canoe» lays out an utmost stripped-down, metallically droning Reggae tune, while «Green Plunder» presents a nasty, shattering, technoid roller. Finally, percussion-oriented «Ravings Of Rock» playfully swings between stops and goes, seabed and rain clouds. The EP casually follows a powerfully eloquent poem by Carribean poet Edward Kamau Brathwaite (r.i.p.) and closes with this pretty evident line: «The Unity Is Submarine».

Comfortnoise: ...“Powder Blue” is another composition of crisp heavyweight Swiss dubbings delivered by NEW.COM on his Comfortnoise imprint: Six soundsystem workouts assembled into a proper mini album, accompanied by a picture inlay plus sticker, and the download code.This record maps NEW.COM’s own take of Bristol-influenced bass music. It advances his preceding “The Unity Is Submarine” EP by inclining towards grime and drill patterns, shaded by reggae, jungle, funky, acid and electro.“Milan” opens the A-side with a turbulent flow of percussion grounded by a solid, deep-rooted bassline. It develops into a ravey, yet melancholic hands-in-the-air mood. “Olamina” invites to dance by displaying a reduced, funky drum pattern with fat kicks: You choose whether you ride the pushy flow or drift into a cool, laid-back reverie. “Dubclusion” concludes this side with a mighty bassline wrapped up in a deliberately idiosyncratic digital reggae tune.On the B-side, “Decoy” rushes through the dancefloor like a proper techno tune. However, it has its own edge and surprises not only with some sort of hysterical birds but also a swinging bassline. Thereafter, “Brainbridge” enters a most reduced, spacious, heavyweight realm. Its drill pattern is fully presented just once but never stops clinging to your head throughout the whole suspenseful journey. “Cessation” comes full circle as a dark, spooky, droning tune that dismisses you into your very own inner world.This is serious heavyweight meditation business!

Timedance: ...'Sharpen, Moving' celebrates five years of the Timedance imprint, blending the labels original aesthetic and opening it up into new corners of leftfield club music. Artists featuring include the regular faces of Batu, Bruce, Ploy and Metrist, alongside newcomers Kit Seymour, Akiko Haruna and Mang & GRAŃ. Timedance also welcomes techno royalty Peter Van Hoesen with one of his most broken tracks to date, plus new appearances from Patina Echoes contributors Via Maris, Cleyra and Nico.The compilation showcases Timedance's evolution from 'Bristol techno' to a more global conscious sound, incorporating energies from different scenes and synthesising them into new modern forms.