Techno Exotica MP3 Set

While there is much on r_garcia‘s four-song Travel by Light Rail MP3 EP (available for free from the Kikapu netlabel) that leans heavily on the sort of techno-exotica that seemed brave and new when Aphex Twin first recorded such things — the tick tock beats, rubberized and distended; the disarming, Casio-style melodies; the light echoes of dub; the ironically canned nature of some of the rhythms — there are more than enough moments of pop splendidness to warrant its download. Here are two: on “Runk,” which is a kind of willfully rudimentary Balkan slice of techno, it’s how the piece funnels down into a simple, repetitive sequence, and how your brain isn’t quite sure which beat is the down beat; on the title cut, it’s the opening sequence, in which the plaintive beacon tone is set against a pneumatic thump. The Kikapu label’s 70th release, Travel by Light Rail is available here. More on Florida-based musician garcia at his webpage, here.