Review Resident Advisor: Munich's Prologue Recordings label has become one of the most understatedly refined disseminators of a strain of techno that's growing more popular seemingly by the minute. The recent Cio D'or Resident Advisor podcast is an excellent mascot for this kinda-sorta-movement, concerned as much with bewitching sound design as anything else.

Long enamored with the darker, more surrealist end of techno, tracks on Prologue tend to be sparse and... more...

Review Resident Advisor: Munich's Prologue Recordings label has become one of the most understatedly refined disseminators of a strain of techno that's growing more popular seemingly by the minute. The recent Cio D'or Resident Advisor podcast is an excellent mascot for this kinda-sorta-movement, concerned as much with bewitching sound design as anything else.

Long enamored with the darker, more surrealist end of techno, tracks on Prologue tend to be sparse and minimal (the good kind). With spooky and tense atmospheres that stretch out and unfold over ten minutes, each track is a journey in itself. On his second release for the label, Light Echo, Japanese producer Iori dabbles in the more ambient end of Prologue's imagined stylebook. "Spiral" is almost like a characteristic Prologue take on Aphex Twin's most comforting early compositions: think Donato Dozzy stuck inside of Selected Ambient Works 85-92. The decaying ambient wash gives way to under-the-surface tribal thrumming, which continues unabated through the several layers of dry ice haze and clouds of intoxicating detritus that floats by during the track's gorgeous ten minutes.

"Time Hole" probes darker realities, it central riff grinding on its own axis with little variation outside of the silvery sparks that shoot out of unseen corners. However, it's the title track that hews closest to Iori's greatest talent—check his "Spaciotemporal" white label on Phonica for another fine example—that is, packing this vast ambient expanse of dread, tension and sensuality into sharply-focused beats. On "Light Echo," percussive synths vibrate internally, their invisible but palpable motion intensifying into a concentrated sheet of simultaneous unnatural movements, the frantic shaking like planetary orbits forced into tiny straight lines. If Iori's got the power to move heavenly bodies, imagine what these tracks could to do a dance floor. less

Resident Advisor

With all the faux throwback minimal and house being tossed about the electronic music community these days, it's nice to see producers and labels reaching just a little farther and a little more to the left with their approach. Prologue Records shot out of the gate two years ago with a string of successful yet largely unnoticed releases by some unknown names, taking chances where most others would shy away. Newest to the pack is Japanese producer... more...

Resident Advisor

With all the faux throwback minimal and house being tossed about the electronic music community these days, it's nice to see producers and labels reaching just a little farther and a little more to the left with their approach. Prologue Records shot out of the gate two years ago with a string of successful yet largely unnoticed releases by some unknown names, taking chances where most others would shy away. Newest to the pack is Japanese producer iORi.

"Unknown Place" is a driving, spaced-out adventure of a track. Simplicity is the key notion here: Caustic, metallic percussion nestle politely with hypnotic atmospheric washes that, accompanied by the dubbed bass, warm things up nicely. Continuing where the title track leaves off, "Magnetic" is a deep and heady scorcher. The slowly growing acid line that reveals itself over the course of ten minutes is married to an equally as slow-building and evolving synth. A track meant for the patient listener and DJ, it shows an astounding amount of depth for such a relatively new producer.

Finishing things off, "Dial" drops the BPM's and heads to the mid-'90s with a squared bassline and teasing 303 beeps. Always building but never reaching a head, most will argue it does "too little, too late," but fans of the sound will feel this—like the rest of the EP—is a brilliant start to a reinterpretation of techno's past that many are patiently awaiting. less