l/f/d/m: music without discipline

L/F/D/M squeezes off a volley of misshapen bangers and atonal wormholes in Music Without Discipline, making a mutant follow-up to his M Is a Shape LP and Crocodiles in the Ceiling EP for Alessio Natalizia (Not Waving) and Sam Willis's Ecstatic label. For his third solo LP proper as L/F/D/M, the London-based producer/artist/designer Richard Smith jams, layers, and hacks a clutch of new hardware toys, the Akai VX90 and Yamaha TX81Z in particular, into 11 variants of what is essentially a style of no wave or new beta techno. Pursuing his taste for unique, visceral and affective electronic tones into odder integers of the club, L/F/D/M establishes a jagged line that runs from original '80s industrialists thru Larry Heard's legendary Gherkin Jerks and the scenius of Downwards's brummie radge packets to a place right between the eyes of 2017. DJs and dancers will find full fat, wonky weapons ranging from the cranky-assed jacker "Dance, You Awful Cunt", through to a sludgy turn called "Birds", a super-tangy Chicago percolator "Texan Flower Girl", and the throaty acid gargle of "Living Without Gain". But it's the way in which Richard Smith is just as happy to follow his nose into sparkling vignettes such as "After R Version II" and "Ballet", and into the grubby pits of "Pinx" that really gives this record its shape and asserts its messed-up character. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering.