EP 1 vinyl

Even if you weren't privy to the news that Firecracker had launched an offshoot, your immediate thought when grasping this inaugural release on Unthank would be that it had something to do with the Edinburgh imprint. Arriving in bespoke purple hand stamped sleeve art pressed on 10 inches of clear vinyl and wrapped in Japanese style plastic, it's one of this year's most attractive propositions for vinyl obsessives. This is all without even approaching the music, a debut peek into the musical mind of newcomer Bakey USTL, an Amsterdam dwelling Estonian producer. In "A Tender Place" Bakey has delivered one of the most disjointed, flagrantly risque, thumping eight minutes of house music your senses might be exposed to this year. In contrast to the sleaze on the A Side, the opposing proceedings open with the shuffling future soul abstractions of "Nose Candy" minimalist beatdown at it's finest, whilst "Heroin" marks a swift descent into the depths of South American narcotic noise. Thus the schizoid brilliance of the A Side is matched by the slightly menacing strangeness of the opposing side on a record which is limited in numbers and high on demand.