redshape: square

Square is the follow-up to Redshape's album debut The Dance Paradox, that is if you don't want to count the double impact 12" Red Pack as an album. And indeed, it is an album in the truest sense of the term. Pamphlets, theories and opinions about the dubious role of "the album" in techno are dime a dozen, i.e. squaring the circle, but the man with the mask makes an effort to prove all of them wrong. Square doesn't care for styles, genres or expectations; it can hold its own. Spread across 12 tracks you are as likely to meet vintage Redshape on tracks like "It's in the Rain" or "The Playground (Square Version)" as you will encounter new facets of him with the Hyperdub-affiliated Space Ape featuring "Until We Burn" and "Moods and Mice" or with a cluster of ambient pieces ("Orange Clouds," "Landing," Departing"). Working its way through all these states and moments on and off the dancefloor, through melancholy and industrial romanticism alike, Square leaves you with the feeling of having experienced an electronic music album with identity that trusts in itself and wants you to trust in it. No matter if your perspective comes from a classic album like Kenny Larkin's Metaphor (R&S, 1995) or is informed by the recent retro futuristic developments in the United Kingdom, if techno means more than a desperately compressed kick drum to you, Redshape with all his idiosyncrasy finds his way into your heart.

Redshape 'Square' [Running Back]