Data Breaker

Chicago producer Robert Armani has been making some of the
most arresting acid techno in the world for nearly 20 years. His tracks
are marked by urgent rhythms, ox-stunning 4/4 beats, and that Roland
TB-303 croak that can seemingly modulate in infinite variations.
There’s something archetypically Midwestern about Armani’s tracky
tracks: They’re stoic yet ecstatic, all business in their desire
to give you robust pleasure.

I haven’t heard everything in Armani’s expansive catalog, which
includes releases on labels like Djax-Up-Beats, Tresor, and Dance
Mania, but what I have experienced makes a beeline for that
peak-time zone when the effects of the drinks, drugs, and people’s
biorhythms all seem to be culminating in a mass
hands-in-the-motherfucking-air celebration. Dude’s output isn’t
exactly subtle, but, damn, it gets the job done with admirable
single-mindedness. And with “Circus Bells” (the Hardfloor remix,
but still…), which I first heard on Laurent Garnier‘s
X-Mix-2: Destination Planet Dream and which instantly blew my
mind, Armani has created one of the most distinctive techno anthems
ever. The man ain’t clownin’ around. Kudos to the Knightriders crew for booking this Windy City heavy hitter.

On a very different tip, the Tectonic Plates Vol. 2 compilation delves into dubstep’s latest evolutionary developments,
thanks to thoughtful curatorship by Tectonic label boss Rob
Ellis, aka Pinch. Martyn’s “Yet” kicks off the disc with
brisk, springy beats, taking dubstep into lighter, less claustrophobic
territory than it’s typically occupied, but it still has that
hyperalert, stealthy feel common to the genre. 2562‘s “Kontrol”
slows the tempo to a sexy, supple skank, but retains a Burial-like
desolation at its core. Skream‘s “Trapped in a Dark Bubble”
unveils the ominous mood and methodically sadistic beats that made many
warm to dubstep’s cold, calculating heart way back in the mid ’00s.
Benga‘s “Technocal” is both a good neologism and an exemplary
piece of hurly-burly rhythm science and gothic gloom. Joker‘s
“Untitled_Rsn” brings a weirdly warped, electro-tinged nerviness to
dubstep. RSD‘s “Forward Youth” eerily sounds like
Bauhaus‘s “Bela Legosi’s Dead,” revamped and sexied up for the
21st century.

Ultimately, Tectonic Plates Vol. 2 represents an important
document in dubstep’s rapid mutation, a snapshot of the genre’s top
artists who are sparking off in many directions. In some vague way, it
reminds me of Mo Wax’s Headz comps, on which producers from
various electronic genres converged in a shared zeal for the freshest
expressions of their particular niches.

(Tectonic Plates Vol. 2 also comes with a Pinch-mixed bonus
disc, which the label didn’t send.)

Robert Armani, Jimmy Hoffa, Travis Baron, Grindle perform Sat
July 4, Baltic Room, 9 pm, $10 before 11/$13 after, 21+.