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October 12, 2018
Our monthly Turbo fix is here courtesy of real name Anthony McGinley code name ABSOLUTE.. The Londoner has been busy since we last mentioned his name in writing, playing out numerous shows in the UK and beyond as well as catching blurbs/premiers in DJ Mag and Mixmag. I wasn’t keen on McGinley’s Twin Turbo debut Harmony EP but if there’s one single individual human that could convince me of giving a second chance, it’s Turbo bossman Tiga.
‘Break a Hip’ sounds good. It’s the first track on the project and it does not waste any time sounding good. Crunched percussive hits shuffle along with periodic silence dotted just so as to evoke a sense of organic-ness. The hi-hats and other symbol accoutrements are noticeably not crunched, giving them piercing power. The track is hard in a subdued way; it’s tough but it doesn’t want to scare anyone away.
Next comes ‘Dancing Right,’ a track of an equally dark emotional space. It starts off a little thin, similar shuffling percussion and a moody atmosphere. Someone somewhere says something about “dancing your ass off” and the shadowy visage of a watered down industrial electro proxy Proxy track emerges. The track never shakes this feeling, never pulls its own identity out of its own bag.
The project’s title track ‘Malfunction’ comes up a little diluted either by being so close to ‘Dancing Right’ or perhaps on its own merit. A distorted Philly native Robbie Tronco sample opens the track and frankly I’m not about it. The track really isn’t about it either, so it’s mostly forgotten. The rest of the audio elements come together to form a solid techno excursion with more overt nods to Turbo Legends (Gesaffelstien and again, Proxy). The formula works but at what cost?
For me, ‘Assimilate’ is an example of what can be done with an influences-on-the-sleeve style production. The stylistic choices are clear, but I feel more of McGinley in the track’s recipe. The details in the structure stand out more against the safe-zone that the piece occupies for most of the five and a half minutes, and they do much to bring the track up to the caliber of the opener ‘Break a Hip.’
Overall I think that McGinley’s second Twin Turbo outing as ABSOLUTE. works as a midterm checkup. There is some solid production on the project, and the first and fourth tracks stand out amongst the wave of techno that 2018 has seen. If I might be so bold, I’d like to see what McGinley’s path looks like as he begins to venture forth from the fabled forefathers of dark techno. 🍍