Sigha – The Purification Loops
Fast techno is making a comeback. And if there’s anyone you can trust to make techno appealing to the here and now, it’s Sigha. While James Shaw is no passenger, his ear for trend can be traced back to the release of his Raww 12” for Hotflush in 2009. This was around the time when the ‘Ostgut’ sound was really taking off and “Untitled#2” from that record was Sigha playing his hand at this. Shortly afterwards in 2010 he launched his own label, Our Circular Sound, with a two-track 12” that included a Marcel Dettmann remix, but it wasn’t until the label’s following release a year later, The Politics Of Dying, that Sigha’s techno-self really took off. That release came with remixes from James Ruskin, around the time of his burly Erotic Misery and No Time Soon records with Mark Broom, and Shifted, right before Guy Alexander broke 2011 wide-open with a rapid-fire run of big 12”s for Mote-Evolver, the now dormant Syndrome Z, Our Circular Sound, and, of course, AVN #001.
Since then, Sigha’s moved away from what’s described as Berghainy techno and towards something that comes across as Regis and Surgeon inspired, and along with Shifted’s Sickness By Means Of Clairvoyance, his imaginative titles like A Series Of Desecrations, I am Apathy, I am Submission to A Model Authority, all mirror the dark humour of British Murder Boys. Our Circular Sound, however, has held down its own aesthetic of a tough-sleekness which can heard on EPs by Truss, Shifted’s Tellic, to thicker productions by Positive Centre.
Despite having recently revealed he was responsible for the two Avian releases from A Vision Of Love, it still seems odd to consider The Purification Loops is Sigha’s debut proper on Avian considering he’s as inseparable from Shifted as Blawan is from Pariah. Having found his footing in dubstep from working downstairs at Soho’s Black Market Records, to ascending the ranks at Hotflush, Sigha looks to be using his official introduction on Avian to introduce a new side to his techno production palette.
While techno at the moment might not be sure if it wants to head back into the days when the likes of Missile Records, Cosmic and Downwards were pumping out heavy loops on free rotation, the sonic force from labels at the moment like Perc Trax and Inner Surface is bleeding into the gone but not forgotten psyche of ‘90s British techno. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be ready for a reinvigorated return to this. The Purification Loops is a poignant title and speaks more about the record in a straight forward sense, while its artwork, by the looks of it, existentially draws a correlation between techno and the Christian practice of immersion baptism.
Of the rougher tracks, “Loop Two” and “Loop Six”, focus on rolling drums that create their asymmetrical rhythm through the falling effect a second spurt of drums give each loop every time it comes around. While “Loop One” and “Four” confidently hold their ground as minimal, big room drum tracks that remain interesting from start to finish in a similar way to Dettmann’s “Argon”. There’s a strand of techno running throughout the remaining third and fifth “Loop” that’s smoky in the same way Tony Scott’s music has been since he started producing as Edit Select. Both these productions, by happenstance, mesh into a combination of tribal, hissy and spacious elements from the A1 of that project’s first release “Asperty” and “Typhoon” by Ventress released on Edit Select Records in 2012.
Watching the development of Sigha only comes second to the rapid rise of Shifted and The Purification Loops gives viewers like us a front-row seat to where the respected producer, and techno, could be headed next.
James Manning
Tracklisting:
A1. Loop One
A2. Loop Two
A3. Loop Three
B1. Loop Four
B2. Loop Five
B3. Loop Six