SAMUEL KERRIDGE - The I Is Nothing (Downwards)

SAMUEL KERRIDGE - The I Is Nothing (Downwards) In pursuit of hardcore techno ballistics and mutant metal alloys, The I Is Nothing marks five years of Samuel Kerridge releases on Regis’ Downwards with a dread-fuelled, nerve- stepping procession from the steaming rollige of The Silence Between Us [2017].

Balancing blank-eyed industrial torpor and dancefloor lust in four forceful designs, Kerridge firmly pushes forward with a style that owes as much to ‘90s tech-step and current minimal D&B as the Brummie deviations of Mick Harris and Karl O’Connor, or the original underground ‘80s movements of Nocturnal Emissions, Bourbonese Qualk and Muslimgauze.

The A-side wrestles with a serpentine stinger called Silent Notes, a roiling combo of EBM drums and divebombing Reese bass perhaps imagining the bastard offspring of DJ Trace and Drew McDowell’s modular synth, while Fascination Sustain strips down to a scudding sort of electro-techno IDM pressure recalling Oberman Knocks or Bitstream’s Adapta gear.

On the B-side, Isis frontman Aaron Turner infects Propagates of Desire with masochistic lyrics buried deep in Kerridge’s matrix of recoiling EBM kicks and Stuka synth drones, then Actuality Repeats stretches out in a hollowed sphere of 150bpm electro and spectralist gloom. Recommended!