Mention Josh Wink’s name and immediately a handful of hit techno/house ear-drillers like “Don’t Laugh” and the classic “Higher State of Consciousness” come to mind. His newest work on the Shoelaces EP (Boysnoize Records) is another notch on his belt of big bangers. The diversity of techno ranges from casual to hardcore so there’s something here for everybody.
The original mix of “Shoelaces” features knotty acid runs twisting up and down the board with Wink’s trademark dirty tech-driven style shoveled atop a crisp electro-breakbeat structure and tied together with a throbbing bottom, oversized bass bubbles and deep, cosmic vocals. The Instrumental and Acid Instrumental mixes each present a slightly stripped alternative without losing any of the snap and punch of the prime cut.
The four-to-the-floor shock-and-awe of Truncate’s bangin’ remix is for those headstrong hard-tech warehouse ‘heads that would laugh big-room EDM out of the club. For a more conservative spin, check out the Mono Junk remix— it’s got that same solid techno flavor without the strict niche appeal of the others.
I like techno in bite-sized morsels, and the breaks make this EP even more accessible to those whose heads aren’t always buried in the underground. If you stumble across this one on a dark dance floor, consider yourself lucky to be trippin’ over Josh Wink’s Shoelaces.