When you trawl through the back catalogue of Delsin’s releases, any self-respecting artists would say yes to creating output on the label quicker than Chief Keef spurts out “Bang Bang”. And with Artefakt having built a sturdy rep over the presiding years with solid music like their ‘Final Theory‘ and ‘Fifth Planet‘ EPs, the latter also being on Delsin, you’d say for both teams to bring us a full-length LP, it’d be a no-brainer, right?
Well, ‘Kinship‘ is that exact result. It’s full to the brim of deep and driving melancholic techno, boundless in every detail, every etching, all carved meticulously – It’s only a matter of minutes before we’re taken from a sombre number into those dense and mind-weaving signature Artefakt sounds, perfect case in point: ‘Entering The City‘, a heavy-hitting parable with it’s shear length and woozy textures, pounding its way through the LP – and there’s plenty more to give.
"Kinship is full to the brim of deep and driving melancholic techno, boundless in every detail, every etching, all carved meticulously."
Despite the dangerous welts of ‘Fernweh’ and peak time benders like ‘Return to Reason’, Kinship is cleverly paired with tenderly subtle moments that have more emotional weighting than Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery, giving the album a continuance and zero monotony. The Dutch duo’s skill for varied production and different breathes of tempo, such as ‘Tapeloop 1‘, a warped dystopian track that’s the perfect end to the album’s dream sequence is brilliantly, one of the most stand-out elements of the album.
Artefakt, with Kinship, have crafted something for the serious techno lovers, the people listening consciously and the boundaries in-between. Under scrutiny and overall, they’ve built a solid album of sustenance and no cream cheese filling, the first couple of plays of this had me reminiscing of late-night listens to Plastikman’s ‘Musik‘, and there are only a few LPs of that kind of calibre… There’s notable progress and distinction from earlier EPs, while still keeping close to the sounds that fans want to hear from them.
Kinship out now via Delsin, and is worth copping… grab the vinyl before it flies like all their other shit.
- Photo by Kasia Zacharko
TRACKLIST
A1. Kinship
A2. Tapestry
B1. Entering The City
C1. Somatic Dreams
C2. Fernweh
D1. Return To Reason
D2. Tapeloop 1