primal code: al calculator

Up next in our main series are Milan-based dub techno outfit Primal Code. With a solid back catalogue comprising releases for Hypnus Records, TGP and Konstrukt, the Italian duo have honed their skills to impressive effect over the last few years, forging a sound signature thoroughly engaging on both body and cerebral levels, and now punching in on KOC to breathe further hard-hitting opaque heat into the collection. Putting things into gear, “AI Calculator” propels us across dim-lit streetscapes and murky subterranean entrails, pared-down to a minimal array of modular signals, subtle machine inflections and particularly acute rhythmic progression. Steering the original into further pumped-up, DJ-friendly territories, NAFF affiliate Priori, hot on heels from his sophomore album, drops the hammer badman style, bringing forth the racing muscular bass and squelchy machine talk on loop mode to keep everyone on their toes from start to finish. Flexing a different kind of acidic swagger, “Autopilot” pulls out the weird extra-terrestrial jazz tropes and whirling dynamics for a round of proper otherworldly bop in the outer-space. Last but not least, “Mainframe” rounds off the release on a more openly experimental note, letting the loops, envelopes and textures float in a haze of half-controlled abstraction. The result evokes something of an immunocompromised Rubber Johnny getting glazed as he weightlessly drifts off from a galaxy to another, and into another world completely.