MK303, Austin Corrosive, Tassid & D.A.V.E. the Drummer, OB1 – System Rejects 02 (System Rejects)

MK303’s Drugged Up is an outstanding track. Coming straight from SR’s no-nonsense division, the acid fires up right away, but it’s at around 1.40 that a riff begins blasting away behind the main acid lines, and it’s a total doozy, elevating the track from the realms of superior acid workout to something way better. A lot of tracks would happily rely on that one riff – not this one.

Meanwhile, Austin Corrosive breaks out the fatter, philthier acid for Sharks With Lasers. Austin’s recent tracks have had a real machinery-in-crisis sound to them, a feeling that they could, at any second, spin completely off the grid, and it’s an exciting, distinctive sound – the sound of a really in-form, confident producer. It’s a feeling that pervades the entire release, in fact. You get a sense of everybody involved stretching their wings.

Next, Tassid and D.A.V.E the Drummer on Sexual Advance. The track is basically a rework of the Adam Freeland track, We Want Your Soul, complete with the eponymous vocal and Bill Hicks’s ‘you are free to do as we tell you’ routine during the breakdown. Freeland’s track is a classic and it’s a brave man who evokes its memories, even in a new context, but Christ, this track thumps. Here the BPMs rise to Tassid levels, rather than drop to DtD levels, and Tassid tracks always bang. But this one? Whoosh.

Lastly, OB1 is, as ever, applying advanced acid techniques to his 303 on Fight War. First he has fun with drums, setting up a rolling, funky sound before laying down the first of the acid lines at around 1.40. The 303 are whipped to a frenzy, and with the looped ‘fight war’ vocal sample sounding suitably psychotic, the result is a truly breathless and relentless piece of acid techno, a stunning end to what is easily one of the best EPs of the year – if not the best.

Meanwhile, you can catch all of the Rejects plus various other ne’er-do-wells, including Rabbits fave Bad Boy Pete,  playing live at at Soitiz-organised bash in aid of the Headway charity. The party takes place at a secret location in Worcestershire on 7th December, and for tickets you’ll need to email soitizswifty@hotmail.co.uk. It promises to be epic.

Go to System Rejects’ website here.

Listen to the tunes here:

Austin Corrosive, Tassid, OB1, MK303 – System Rejects 01 (System Rejects)

System Rejects is a new label, an “autonomous collective of techno artists and producers” united by a “passion for stomping techno music and  freethinking nonconformism,” which are all things we like here at Rabbits. The stomping techno, the freethinking, the nonconformism –bring it on, we say. What’s more, the label’s founders are none other than Austin Corrosive, Tassid, OB1 and MK 303, who you’ll be  familiar with – or you bloody well should be, at least – by virtue of their considerable talents at making kick-ass Acid Techno.

System Rejects 01, then, and slice my still-beating heart from my chest if it’s not an absolute cracker of a release. The Rejects all take a turn and first off is Austin Corrosive’s Nothing, where thuggish declamatory vocals speed up and slow down before dropping out completely and introducing epic acid of nuclear winter proportions. Meanwhile things get dirty  for Tassid’s Eat Your Own Face, a methylated-spirit-drinking tune, with echo-strewn riffs bouncing off another in their bid to escape an insistent high-pitched siren. The word I’m looking for is ‘cavernous’.

Next, and I’ve talked before about OB1‘s almost surgical precision with the old 303. Here on Factory Grade, he layers them across a patchwork of ravey noises then whips them onto a lithe, funky climax. I think it’s one of the best things he’s ever done.

On a similar high is Matt Knight aka MK303, whose Three Oh Three is very, very phat indeed, letting no-nonsense drums do the heavy lifting while a deceptively strolling bassline is attacked by high-pitched acid lines wielding razor-sharp tomahawks.

So. All good then. Frankly, all brilliant. The ever-so-slightly bad news – especially if you’re a digital Doris like me – is that System Rejects are sticking to their principles of keeping the releases strictly limited and vinyl-only, which means that… well, it means that they’re strictly limited and vinyl-only. You will want these tunes. You will want them a lot. Good luck with that.

Go to System Rejects’ website here.

Listen to the tunes here:

Mobile Dogwash, Pablo Sonic Terrorist, Tik Tok, The ‘Atchet, OB1, MK303, Zoid, Tassid – Corrosive 909 04 (Corrosive Digital)

Not only is Corrosive 909 04 a showcase for some of the best of what you might call the new guard of Acid Techno, but you can’t get a crusty credit card between the tunes, they’re that good. But, oh my God, someone’s put a gun to Cynthia’s puppy’s head and they’re forcing me to choose or the dog dies!

Well, Northern Monkey by Mobile Dogwash vs Pablo Sonic Terrorist plays host to one of Dogwash’s adamantium acid lines, and we always like to have a supply of those in the fridge in case of unexpected guests. So that’s a contender. Then you get Grim Reaper, courtesy of Tik Tok and The  ‘Atchet, which has a superb, fierce drop, fidgety acid, possibly the best break of the EP, and easily the best vocal sample of the EP. So that’ll be there or thereabouts.

Urk.

Meanwhile OB1 & MK303’s You Are a Machine has the old skooliest acid line of the bunch, alongside a dirty synth riff and an outro that’s as squealy and ace as The Rabbit’s Name Was, and will be getting a whole lot of play round here, so that’ll be in the running. While Zoid’s Spaced Out, on the other hand, is the EP’s most intense experience: industrial, hard and fast, downright scary, actually – so much so I was surprised to hear the Human Traffic sample halfway through, expecting something sci-fi or horror  – and then a thrilling machines-in-crisis end. For sheer, out-there insanity, when you need to frighten an old lady to death and claim the inheritance for example, it simply can’t be beat. Which also makes it a favourite.

And then you have Tassid’s Sketchie Fecker. And we love Tassid. We love Tassid because he in turn loves big BPMs and highwire acid lines, and never disappoints. Here he offers up the above in spades, with the addition of an insanely addictive synth melody which gives the track a really distinctive edge, underpinning some seriously agitated 303 work.

So, no. Can’t do it. Can’t choose between them. Sorry, Cynthia.

Get it from: 909 London