We know very little about Powell except that he’s just released his first record on his own newly minted label Diagonal, he’s enlisted a remix from British techno legend Karl O’Conner (aka Regis), and his music is rather good.
The tracks on The Ongoing Significance Of Steel & Flesh, as the name might suggest, form bridges between human and machine textures. It’s roots lie in techno and industrial, but the tones Powell uses are less strictly synthetic. Instead, the percussion used in both the title track and ‘Robotics’ is warm, woody and often falls slightly off the beat, as if played by a human rather than programmed. Like a harsher Demdike Stare, or Raime further divested of melody, it’s a great little EP – and bolstered by O’Connor’s suitably bleak remix. Find out more at the Diagonal Records website.
To mark its release and the launch of the label, he’s recorded a mix that very accurately charts some of the influences and ideas that have gone into the record. Sound for darkened winter afternoons. Check Soundcloud for the full tracklist.
