the modern institute: another exhibition at the modern institute

Diagonal pull out a zinging art-techno curveball with Another Exhibition at the Modern Institute, the second EP by Glasgow's hottest new prospect, The Modern Institute; an iconoclastic trio of agitators comprising Golden Teacher's Richard McMaster and Laurie Pitt joined some droll, scaly Northern English vocalist, James Stephen Wright, for one of the freshest and vital blends of post-punk, art-school, and techno sensibilities to emerge in recent memory. Aimed as a snark at the middle-class art gaze as much as a slippery engine for the dancefloor, Another Exhibition at the Modern Institute reels six mercurial fusions of scudding, techy rhythms, and sheer electronic contours strewn with drily observant vocals describing hyper-sensual scenarios. It's a sound perhaps purposefully located lightyears away from Golden Teacher's charming retro-vintage styles, and effectively gives that group's rhythmic engine of McMaster and Pitt a space to express their more contemporary concerns. Forming the second blow of a Glasgow-centered 1-2 after Russell Haswell and Sue Tompkins's Respondent EP, The Modern Institute swarm in formation from a white-hot electro-stepper "IV Cheeks" to somewhere darker, almost paranoid by the close of "Dozen Cocktails", taking in a sound like Errorsmith producing for MES in "Limitless Light", or Hecker doing footwork on the new beta anthem "Quicksilver Lips", whilst "Unbreakable Pulse" and the pinging ballistics of "Molton Gold" short circuit the deep-rooted transatlantic connection between Glasgow art punks' afterparties and Detroit ghetto styles with a deadly swagger. RIYL: Chris Carter, DJ Stingray, Toresch, Dale Cornish, Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget, John Bender, Smersh, LCD Soundsystem. Artwork by Guy Featherstone. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Includes locked grooves. Red vinyl; Edition of 500.