SWARM INTELLIGENCE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Some six years after it first slipped out, Simon Hayes' third album of experimental techno as Swarm Intelligence returns to record stores. This is a welcome development, because Rust is a genuinely impressive full-length. It draws deeply on Hayes love of Industrial, EBM, murky instrumental hip-hop, dubstep and lo-fi techno, but is far more experimental in tone, with the producer cladding his fuzz-fuelled beats in all manner of heavily processed sounds, droning textures, unsettling noise and buzzing tones. For the most part it's intense musical paranoia, though there are frequent chinks of sonic light amongst the creaking doors, scattered rhythms and densely layered aural textures. As a result, it's a pleasingly balanced collection of cutting-edge compositions.