Paperclip Minimiser vinyl

Manchester producer, sequencer designer and Cong Burn label boss John Howes made the eight untitled tracks here entirely using a Nord Modular G2, Elektron Machinedrum and Monomachine - a rig he characterizes as "an authentic 2006 studio, best listened to on Windows XP Media Player or Winamp." But, while the modular trend sometimes spawns a certain over-the-topness - after all, with so many opportunities at your fingertips, why wouldn't you explore a few too many - his productions are notable for a certain sense of restraint, or at least leaving space for the really good ideas to poke their heads through the mix and make themselves known. When you see music described as "multidimensional constructs of stereo panned synthetics and slithering ambient techno" you just know they're going to sound twice as good on headphones and in this case they truly are a treat for stereo-loving ears, again, subtly fizzing around your headspace rather than performing obvious tricks. While the music itself is serene and relaxed enough to be classed as ambient, it's anything but lethargic, its parts constantly on the move as they coalesce around a dub rhythm or a head nodding techno pulse, slowly but surely drawing you into their quietly crazy and beautiful world. Compulsive joy.