Peter Van Hoesen

Last year, Peter Van Hoesen released sophomore full-length Perceiver on his Time to Express imprint. Idiosyncratic and edgy, the LP stretched the not-so-taut boundaries of techno, representing a leap forward for the Belgian producer. Fast-forward to 2013 and Van Hoesen's follow-up, Life Performance, finds him improvising in a live setting at Berlin's Tresor club. Eschewing the laptop, in favour of sound production gear, Van Hoesen sculpts a 60-minute slab of rhythm-heavy techno, tweaking parameter after parameter to create subtle shifts in texture. The set comes off rather rigid when compared to the almost mutant beats of Perceiver, yet a sense of playfulness manages to reveal itself throughout. That said, even Van Hoesen's torpid moments are more engaging than the most rabid of outputs from certain producers. Life Performance is certainly an LP worth investigating for fans and neophytes alike.