bronze teeth: o unilateralis

London label Diagonal continue their swerve into caustic dancefloor territory with the debut of the first of two 12" releases from Bronze Teeth. Their extended technoid grooves perfectly match the project's name -- they're tough, hard-edged and intricately sculpted for tensile strength and visceral impact. Traces of the sounds that feed into Bronze Teeth can be heard in the duo's individual projects. Dominic Butler is one-third of Factory Floor, the London-based trio renowned for their wiry, dynamic live shows; his modular electronics are an integral component in that band's devastating cocktails of Morse code electronic blips, drum and guitar. Richard Smith meanwhile, records as L/F/D/M, and debuted with a scintillating clutch of acid tracks on Optimo Music in 2013. Bronze Teeth offers them free rein to explore their own interests in sound, and in particular the potential for chaotic interaction between metallic programmed rhythms and the fleshy pulses of the human body. On O. Unilateralis, sprawling opener "Tapeworm" and the glassy club noise of "Acetone" and 'Glass Tooth', they appear to be skirting along the edge of control, with their machines wrestling dominance back from their users and sending sparks ricocheting through the mix. For all its monochrome battery, this isn't lo-fi music, nor is it retrogressive. The ghosts of acid house and skull-shredding free party techno lurk in this machine, but they're refracted through a modernist sensibility and a keen ear for sound sculpture: edifices honed from diamond-hard tones and reinforced glass, all wrung from a sprawl of patched-together gear.