varg: sky city-even in the heart of heaven, angels can still feel fear

Part curse, part declaration, part Rorschach test, Varg's new collection of EPs is a barely balanced inferno. Side by side, raw club burners arrive from the wretched plateaus leveled out by chaotic neurotransmissions, while sweet and soft anthems take the pain away. The first EP, Sky City: Even in the Heart of Heaven, Angels Can Still Feel Fear, affirms Varg's deft and agile take on techno. Here minimalism spars with blissed out programming, unafraid to pepper sedate hooks with intricate percussive rufige. With each track's eyes on the raving kru, Varg restates his permit to take it to the floor. It's foreboding, but it always has been--and Sky City: A Weak Heart to Break (Spit) makes this its method. Launching itself under the opening track's dazzling melancholic sweep, the EP loses its way in every direction at once by the last track's glitching gabber meltdown. Fair warning is required for the demonic and cosmically unhinged piece of rhythmic noise that begins the second side.