Paesaggi Periferici by NPLGNN

After a pair of hoofing 12”s for Where To Now? and OKNO, this album stakes out NPLGNN’s widest parameters between severely knackered techno, hip-shot breakbeats and sun-cracked noise panoramas, and all paradoxically generated or drawn-out from from one small piece of relatively outmoded, untrendy gear; the Korg Electribe EMX1.

Each track was recorded live in one take, wringing out a series of slamming, broken rhythms and thistly textures; each drum hit and pad modelled with an in-built noise applied from the machine’s tactile on-board FX, resulting a rudimentary but gripping development of 10 bittersweet, discordant grooves with a perhaps surprising amount of emotive payload and turn of phrase.

In a sense it could be said to follow Mark Fell’s minimalist mantra of getting the most out of one bit of kit, or working within self-imposed limitations, as opposed to accumulating more and more gear and losing yourself in illusory process and exercise. And funnily enough, it also sounds like a personal cassette compilation of experiments from the early daze of Sheffield rave, albeit one left to marinate in a derelict tower block thru the seasons for the last 25 years.

The tape format definitely suits the album’s fidelity best for a thorough listen - we imagine jamming it your car or while cooking spicy grub - but, for the first time on Reel Torque, the tracks are also available to download as a set of individual tracks for club rinse outs.

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