Vibrant Forms

Audio Remasterer: Matt Colton.
VIBRANT FORMS finds Chain Reaction, the revered in-house boutique imprint of Berlin's Hardwax shop/scene, at the peak of its pleasantly stubborn rut. The less charitable will view local DJ Fluxion's induction into the fabled galleries of techno's Minimal Nation as a safe, tauntingly "sideways" move on CR's part. But that's a little unfair. There's progression here. You just need to measure it in microns.
K. Soublis has intimate knowledge of the Chain Reaction sound, and he wrings the label's beguiling analog bubble-bathetic formula for every last, blissful drop of hypnotic suggestion. VIBRANT FORMS is hoarfrost house music, its vibrations and emanations hermetically signed, sealed, and delivered through layers of building material. Literally driving Chain Reaction's slow echoes of Detroit techno and Kingston dub deep underground, Fluxion affects the street-level, asphalt-cracking aspects of subterranean club activity. Bassbin reverberations seep through porous concrete, whistle through pipes, and resonate through wood beams-rattling panes, loosening tiles, and spilling a muffled melisma into the cold evening air.