File Under UK Metaplasm

Album review

Rian Treanor's second album was influenced by his 2018 trip to Uganda, where he performed at the annual Nyege Nyege Festival, and spent a month recording at the label's studio in Kampala. Heavily inspired by Tanzania's high-octane singeli scene, whose raw bursts of energy routinely top 200 beats per minute, he began approaching his own work differently. File Under UK Metaplasm is an entirely different trip than 2019's ATAXIA and Treanor's earlier EPs. Doing away with the vocal samples of those releases, this album is less angular, but clearer and more refined, with tightly honed sounds whizzing away at controlled speedy tempos. Opener "Hypnic Jerks" is a rapidly spinning audio mobile of percussive tones and squeaky plastic synths, with its weightless feel countered by measured bursts of thudding kick drums spraying like machine-gun fire. "Vacuum Angle" is an elastic footwork mutation, progressively stretching out rubbery synth sequences until they sound like they're about to snap. "Mirror Instant" adds a pinch of neon rave energy, while "Debouncing" is overexcited grime ricocheting off the walls. "Opponent Process" starts with a dancehall-like rhythm and gradually becomes more refracted and stuttery, ending up a torrent of splashy synths and choppy claps and kicks. "Metaplasm" is simply bonkers, constantly twisting upwards and zipping back and forth like an intense, mind-boggling carnival ride. Even as things seem like they're about to fly off the rails, the album retains its sharp focus and is easier to follow (or even dance to) than it may seem on the surface. Treanor's work is so singular that it's only appropriate for him to coin an entirely new genre term to describe it.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo