★★★★☆
Without inflating techno’s scientific slant which can bog down man’s basic right to kick drums, the faux textbook title Transsektoral gives you all you need to know about Sam Barker & Andy Baumecker’s keenness for genre research. It’s all Venn diagrams and pie charts when it comes to assimilating the deep and minimal, the experimental and technical, including a touch of dubstep-like gloom, then sending for the agitated to mix in as well.
“SchlangBang” blazes with its bassline slurping to the memory of speed garage, and the shrill European machination leading the concave scuttles of “Crows” is an excellent scaremonger. There should be no concerns over flow as the pair keep the variations equipped with the same chassis, fitted by the telekinesic twosome where everything is a descendent of the next or former. This sets up a conciseness and staves off predictions that covering all angles must mean the album rambles on forever.
Loath to using the term versatile, B & B continue uninterrupted by delving into Robert Hood-themed rhythm and discipline (“Trans_it2), the utterly primeval beatings of “Buttcracker” again developing a sound that’s not without its discord yet stays firmly entrenched in the basement, and finishing with the splendid curtain-dropper “Spur”. Techno that ticks all the right boxes, without ever making it a chore.
File under: Voltek, Delta Funktionen, Cosmin TRG