I wasn't sure what to expect when I cued up the first side of this single - I picked it up on a whim, largely influenced by the cool white-on-black Egyptian imagery and the label moniker 'Skull Disco. You can't argue with a name like that.
The track is dark - a broodingly elemental slice of deep electro tech-esque house, with an impassionate, somewhat sinister spoken track layered on top. It builds nicely with industrial echoes resonating in the sparse soundscape, and resonant bass sweeps providing much of the form of the track.
On the obverse is the 'Ricardo Villalobos Apocalyso Now' mix, which maintains most of the same elements as the original mix but manages to impart a little more energy - and uses the vocal more prominently.
I'm intrigued by the Skull Disco label, and I'd be curious enough to sample some of their other material based on this release - but I feel it's lacking something. It's marvellously deep, almost soothing in its mystery, but as a standalone track it leaves me wanting a little more.
What next?More by Shackleton? More single reviews? More techno?