Throughout his career, Black Merlin man George Thompson has been welded to the dancefloor potential of percussive hypnotism. Since the rubbery, gently blissful positivity of his debut 12” on Bird Scarer back in 2013, Thompson has applied his repetitious, slowly unfurling template to a variety of styles. Yet while his solo releases have touched on pitched-down cosmic disco, synthesizer-led krautrock, EBM, bleak new wave and, most recently, pulse-quickening clandestine techno (see last year’s fine excursion on SORN), his love of drawn-out atmospheres and locked-in grooves has remained a constant. Like many fine producers, he’s been able to reinvent his sound almost at will, while maintaining a constant thread throughout his work.
