After an impressive and way underrated first EP on wonky house and techno flagship L.I.E.S., the mysterious Person Of Interest strikes again. Same recipe: a three track plate of swaying techno, both deep and light-seeking, drenched in a subtly-arranged sauce of hiss and dust without falling in the ‘too much lo-fi kills the lo-fi’ pitfall. Following on from the anthemic two-step shuffle of ‘Call This Number‘ last year, POI drops another bomb’esque triplet of infectious basslines and mind-intrusive material.
On ‘What You Think You Want‘, the impression persists that POI is one of the deftest underground techno producers when it comes to shifting from textured depths to stabbing synth melodies that strike sharp like a sun ray straight on the retina. The tracks here are compellingly dancefloor-oriented but rather than looking for the simple one-faced hustle, the man builds up multiple narratives, discharging ideas one after the other without getting lost in his sonic tracery, managing to bind different phases with one progressive momentum throughout the whole track.
The length of POI’s tracks prove his taste for alteration and constant evolution, building intricate structures that develop and shed skins up to the point where the original groove of the track ends up almost totally transfigured. Take ‘Keep It Moving‘, it unfolds an elastic bassline that stretches out indefinitely, continuously distorting while percussions remain quite discreet. The track takes a whole different course when percussions come afloat and an intense wave of strings deflects the groove from its prime orbit. Although digressing from a very diverse horizon of musicality, the quality of arrangement that POI puts on display amazes. The sound collage is as raw as effective in terms of dancefloor strike force.
‘My 97s‘ then feels like quietly unfolding POI’s rhythm savoir faire, giving vent to his sense of composition and sound-framing in a rather stripped-back design for what results in a well-harnessed melodic trip through pure 4 / 4 patterns and more Drexciyan extents as much as it keeps peeping towards hip-hop grounds. Cleverly juggling with well-positioned breaks and waiting phases, the producer once again delivers his one of a kind techno gospel with baffling ease. Dense and rich of an imaginative breath that’s too rare to be overlooked, these three excellent cuts of rocky techno that punches the metronome like a haymaker shall make their way to your cart beyond any doubt.
Person Of Interest is out now on L.I.E.S., order a vinyl copy from Norman Records.
TRACKLIST
A1. What You Think You Want
B1. Keep It Moving
B2. My 97’s
Discover more about Person Of Interest and L.I.E.S. on Inverted Audio.