Copenhagen label FLUF has been prolifically releasing deviant abstract electronic music since 2017, fuelled by future sonics and a self-effacing sarcasm that transcends any pseudo academic pitfalls. I’ve said it before, but the regular type-font newsletters from FLUF are nudge/wink joy to read, and the release blurbs wryly nod to ongoing cassette fetishism with lines like, “All musical items produced in accordance with best international practice and recorded in a hermetically sealed environment equipped with HEPA U17 air filtration systems”.
Many of FLUF’s releases over the last few years have been dense explorations in synthesis, algorithmically tangled computer music and field recordings, and on Touchie Riddim, Mosca takes the grime instrumental to the outskirts of abstract sound design. Over the EP’s four tracks (Touchie Riddim parts 1-4), you’ll latch on to the odd early-2000s marker like the dagger bassline slices in Pt 1, but this nagging familiarity is offset by totally off-grid smithereens of ping-ponging, high velocity tones and insectoid alien chatter.
Pt 3 is a pulsing, dread-filled horror tone that’ll give you brain palpitations, while there’s a paralysing thrill on parts 1 & 4, trying to map out where the next synthetic cluster bomb is about to blow. Sure, this is head music, but the aftershocks splinter through all your other parts.
Touchie Riddim is released on FLUF cassette on October 11. Listen below…
Moo Kid 