- Brisbane’s Mack Franklin (aka Thomas Brydon) has just put out an EP on local label While You Where Sleeping (WYWS). Having produced under various monikers over the years, (as well as being at the core of the Mascone Echoes label and half of the duo Ruhe), Franklin has an energized approach to electronic music which touches on different elements of techno and house to great effect.
Throw kicks things into high gear. A fast-paced banger with a thick, distorted bassline. When He Dies starts it does so with a sort of distorted reverse jumble of sounds, giving way to a heavy drum groove as the track progresses. Drum Workout is true to its namesake, with its unabashed embrace of the 909. The track bounces along with a tom fill and those splashy cymbals. A contemplative chord progression and vocals stabs complete the picture, with the rhythm in the forefront all the while. Love the blissed out thirty-second outro where the drums drop out while the chords and vox roll on. Headburst rounds the EP out: another typically thunderous dance track with some truly pounding drums. In the last minute the track fades, giving way to a distorted spoken-word section (which sounds like heavily processed Zizek ramble); it's Birmingham techno by the likes of Surgeon and Regis.
Mack Franklin’s consistently great live shows are reflected in these tracks, which have a live, improvisational feel. All of them are rhythmically rich and propulisive, well suited to the dancefloor, or as is the case here, for your listening pleasure.
- Hillfolk.