Diagonal label boss and maker of some of the most strange and brilliant dance-not-dance music of recent times, Powell, has announced the release of his fourth EP. Entitled Fizz, it will be finding its way into the world via Mute sublabel Liberation Technologies on 3rd June, and follows on from his excellent untitled EP on Death Of Rave from earlier this year.
"There’s something about Powell’s sound that just feels instinctively wrong," we said – in an entirely positive way, it should be noted – in a review of his Death of Rave 12". "It shouldn’t quite exist in the form that it does: its constituent parts have a bolted together, Frankenstein’s monster kind of feel, lending the final results a sickly and unnatural hue."
This follow-up for Liberation Technology ups the ante – and the tempo – rattling along at a fairly bracing drum & bass tempo, nodding more explicitly than before to Powell’s personal history with jungle and early d&b. You can listen to a clip from lead track ‘Fizz’ via the embed above for a taste of what the EP will sound like – bone-dry, skeletal, sinister but deeply playful.
"Powell’s tracks flirt with the dynamics and structures of club music while joyfully subverting them, throwing acoustic sound sources or disembodied voices into the mix to play havoc with the groove," reads the text accompanying the EP’s release, which describes its three tracks as "some of the most mischevious club-rooted music you’re likely to hear all year. They nod obliquely to Powell’s history with jungle and early drum & bass – compared to the techno-esque momentum of his earlier releases, here he’s almost subliminally ratcheted up the tempo, turning these tracks into blistering forward barrages of percussion and dusty bass."
In addition to the release of his own new 12", Powell’s label Diagonal will be hosting their first club night in association with BleeD, this Friday at Stoke Newington’s Waiting Room. It features an impressive line-up, headed up by Powell himself, whose sets are wide-ranging things that draw from across styles while remaining coherent (much like his own sets, in fact). Joining him are new Diagonal signees Blood Music, who have a new EP due through the label soon, Russell Haswell – who also has "rhythm-based" music lined up for release via Diagonal – and Raime, who will be DJing. For more information and tickets click here, and for a taste to what Powell’s set is likely to feel like, watch a video of his recent Boiler Room set below.
