Six years ago, Brian Leeds—better known as the ambient-techno producer —invented a new alias, , for a . shared certain key characteristics with Huerco S. records.
It was suggestively murky, dusted with dull glitter, propelled by four-on-the-floor beats that were more implicit than explicit. One track was 10 minutes long; another ran to more than a quarter of an hour, burbling away like an enchanted brook. It seemed to say, .
The music’s dubby pulse and foggy sound design nodded to a particular set of Y2K-era influences— and their kin, , —that were canonical though not, in 2018, particularly fashionable. In the intervening years, those sounds have crept back around, rediscovered by a generation that wasn’t there for the first wave. Artists like , , and have all been toying with styles associated with the German minimal techno of the early 2000s.
Many of these artists, following Huerco S.’s lead, seem inspired primarily by atmospheric qualities. But on Loidis’ new album, , the Kansas City producer dials up the intensity.
Leeds’ first full-length under the alias aims straight for the dancefloor with a collection of trippy, springy tracks that seem designed, like a candy-flipping Energizer Bunny, to thump away until long past sunup. was largely an ambient affair, but ’s opening track, “Tell Me,” arrives like a shot across the bow. Its quick-stepping kicks and hi-hats seem designed to match the energetic tempos of .
The hiccupping bassline pushes against th.