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2009 was no slouch year for Raster-Noton, with excellent releases from label stalwart Alva Noto and Atom™’s (satirically) pretentious tribute to German electronic music. Best of them all was SND’s comeback album, Atavism, in which the glitch duo posed the question: just how minimal can minimal techno get and still be groovy? The answer, as it turns out, involves stripping away the reverb and percussive detritus that often marks the genre, instead focusing solely on a drastically limited palette of harshly digital sounds. Yet from this small bag of pads, kicks, and other hits, SND produced an album that becomes undeniably infectious through its obsessive repetitions. These 16 untitled tracks are the cleanest, sharpest edges in any electronic music ostensibly for dancing—everything has been sanitized and computer-sequenced. But, to paraphrase Carl Craig’s reaction to the similarly stark Kraftwerk, this is so stiff that it’s funky.
Slipped Disc: SND - Atavism
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By David Abravanel, Timothy Gabriele, Mike Newmark, Alan Ranta, and Dominic Umile
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We have no idea where the hell electronic music is going in the next decade, but if you can't find something in the wide stew of sonics out there to get excited about, check your pulse. You're probably dead.
By Mike Newmark
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Atavism is the Sheffield duo's first SND record in nearly seven years. Was the killer wait worth it? Yes. The wait was worth it.
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