rian treanor: a rational tangle

Rian Treanor reimagines the intersection of club culture, experimental art, and computer music with A Rational Tangle, his debut quartet of glass-cut, 150-BPM hyperprisms for The Death of Rave. Galvanizing and accelerating garage and techno with cuttingly crisp tonal diction and a pointillist percussive palette, A Rational Tangle demonstrates Treanor's adroit and finely nurtured rhythmelodic instincts through a quicksilver syntax of kerned, polychromatic 2-step patterns and whip-smart, emotive jit music. Functionally titled "A1" thru "B2," the EP's four tracks vacillate between ping-pong ballistics and recursive melodic motifs constructed in Max/MSP, dancing from pendulous, aerobic minimalism to taut, synthetic tabla grooves with grid-melting nous, while also taking in gamelan-esque hypeR&B through wormholes of smeared and curdled harmonics, plus one dead lush section of Detroit-via-Yorkshire styled hi-tech funk. The production is stainlessly dry and future-proof while his arrangements are considerately efficient, yet it's all blessed with a pop or 'floor-ready turn of phrase that reveals new kinks, fills, and twysts with each return listen. Whichever angle you view it from, A Rational Tangle forms a rewarding introduction to the work of a very promising and distinct voice in electronic music. Rian Treanor (b. 1988) is an artist and producer based in the North of the UK. His practice references the dynamic cut-ups of Fluxus and Dada as much as UK dance music to present an insightful and compelling musical world of interlocking and fractured components. He has formerly studied with Lupo at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering, in addition to years spent running the Enjoy art space in Leeds. RIYL RP Boo, SND, Æ, NHK, Murlo, Gábor Lázár. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Housed in jackets designed and hand-screened by the artist. Limited edition of 300.