Oliver Schories

★★★★☆

Mean mugging his way between house and techno as an unmoved ball of perpetual motion in no mood to give up his box seat, Oliver Schories bristles with attitude and gets twitchy around strangers. The German’s mission across darkened dance floor territories is ideal for when you’re behind the wheel, speeding on adrenaline to an unknown destination just for the hell of it, or clubbing with the lights blown for when your eyes are clamped to your own marching feet.

A quick follow-up to Herzensangelegenheit (Affair of the Heart), basslines loom and plunge as clubbers are packed off with miner’s helmets (“Sunset”). Voices tremble from the shadows, in awe/fear of Schories’ mean front – gruff more than hostile, crossed swords remain a bad idea on what becomes unsettlingly anthemic and wholly metronomic. A recurring pattern is to start off hard-headedly, yet allow for willowy riffs or mellowed hues to loosen defences and let you in on secrets when the time is right. “But Maybe” and the slight trance inflection to “Circles” and the title track explain, though “Go”’s riff goes the other way and burbles with clenched teeth and fists, and “Only Good For Train” roughs you up then spooks you as it hustles down. Binding musings with muscle (“Be” fits the bill for low-slung, critically cool house), Schories is a single-minded slow burner until Exit becomes a game of clubbing over hot coals.

File under: Stefny Winter, Falko Brocksieper, Philip Bader