Planetary People [3LP]

Planetary Assault Systems - Planetary People [3LP]

Since Temporary Suspension brought its machine-tooled weight and alien feeling to the label in 2009, each Planetary Assault Systems release on Ostgut Ton has been its own quest for discovery, from The Messenger's search for sounds not yet present in club music to Arc Angel's focus on melody to the deep hypnosis of Plantae. His new album, Planetary People has the deliberate imagination and depth of a record that took its time, shaped as much by live rooms and crowds as by the studio. "Into The Night" creates a haunting, dystopic environment of corroded acid saturated in echo, absorbing from the first second. "Labyrinth" breaks into buoyant tribal percussion, modulated chirps trading off over propulsive drums. "Quadrant 10" is clean, delay-drenched techno, buzzing with noise splatters over saturated thuds. "Sermon Of The Light Tides" scrambles metallic bell sequences that distort and evolve throughout, reminiscent of a dial-up modem crossed with a game of Frogger, squelching between percussive bursts and stripped-back kicks. "Brave Cosmo" is tormentingly menacing, eerie synths panning around buried vocal fragments over frantic percussion. "Retina Burn" rolls on fierce, cement-mixer 909 cycles, rave stabs over a ride that locks you in, the whole track stuttering and repeating before stripping back to a bare echoing kick and building itself again. "Thunder Major" barrels on open hats and reverb-drenched claps ricocheting through twisting wreaths of delay, mesmeric and relentless. "Beton Brut" marches juggernaut percussion stamping through hall reverb so vast you can visualize the room, the darkest and most unrelenting track on the record. "No Ninja" crunches in metallic and immediate, a wiry plucked lead threading through glitch with the bass held low and deep, mixed so precisely you can see every layer stacked in your mind's eye. "Ha Jam" is danceable techno with plenty of funk and a sophisticated looseness, a vocal laugh bouncing off clanging metal blocks and rave stabs. "Lynx" lowpasses its rave stabs and crystalline beeps, chirpy hats ticking, cold metal repeats, old school and mesmeric. "Generation Slip" closes everything out, ominous and churning, skittering percussion and electrical sparks rattling through steel, a freight train barreling on into oblivion.
A1. Into the Night (4:07)
A2. Labyrinth (5:32)
B1. Quadrant 10 (5:40)
B2. Sermon of the Light Tides (6:23)
C1. Brave Cosmo (5:50)
C2. Retina Burn (6:07)
D1. Thunder Major (5:55)
D2. Beton Brut (5:37)
E1. No Ninja (6:02)
E2. Ha Jam (4:44)
F1. Lynx (7:25)
F2. Generation Slip (5:21)