Slam

It’s hard to believe that new school techno is old enough that Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle have just released their fourth full-length studio album as Slam. The Glasgow-based duo had a good deal of success in 2007 with their single "Azure.” With loopy arpeggios, dub-y delays and a trance-influenced deep techno sound "Azure” was telling of things to come from Human Response. The most surprising element from the Soma Records owners is the fairytale-like ambience found drifting about in many of the songs, which is prevalent on the beautiful yet moody "Weekday Mourning” and the spacey dub techno of "No One Left to Follow” and "Azure.” My favourite track, "Reluctant Traveller” is a beautiful composition that reminds one of Warp’s early forays into IDM with artists like B-12. After 15 years of making techno, it’s good to hear that Slam and Soma haven’t lost it.