Last week Plymouth based techno producer Matt Holberton aka Newks released his new EP Credence, a work of both smouldering restraint and controlled intensity. It’s arguably his most functionally focused and disciplined in form since his return to the techno fold in 2018 after a 15 year absence. It boasts four hard wired tracks possessing both personality and functionality with a layered dynamic imbued with an invigorating buoyancy and a cracking energy. Deft shifts in tone and atmosphere and an elementally dizzying array of percussive flourishes and rhythmic motifs serve to create grooves that can range from commanding functionality to sumptuous elasticity.
The title track sets things instantly alight with a thumping rhythm and a gently disorienting hive of bubbub like activity that’s just held in check by the discipline of its central rhythm and the minimalist dynamic created by an undercarriage of sub bass. ‘Full Clip’ as its name suggests does no such thing. While similar in style there’s no holding back here as the beat echoes inexorably forward alongside squelching conversation and the rhythmic relationship created between its scratching off beat and a repeating half arpeggiated whirr.
On the flip the first half of ‘Lucius’ does its work in a context of smooth compression before a brief lull serves as the precursor to a rhythmic charge powered by a reverberating kick, sharpened hats and a dizzying range of animated claps, shakes and squelch like effects. ‘Four Organisms’ ends the EP with a minimal and clean complexity dominated by the dynamic created in the interchange between the subtle reverb from a repetitive throbbing kick, accentuations on the hi-hat and the volume of bleeping frequencies.
Credence is a cohesively tough and intricately pattered work characterised by the deft control of its manic compositional intensity. A fascinatingly beguiling listen from beginning to end and one that, if you’re willing to take it on, thrillingly throws down the gauntlet in an audible challenge to your both your objective and receptive sense of both time and space.
James Stocker – January 22, 2020.
Credence EP is released through American label Urban Kickz (UKR) and is currently streaming on Spotify and digitally available via Beatport. Listen to ‘Full Clip’ below via Spotify and buy the EP here. The title track is currently playing in our New Techno Playlist here on Spotify.
Full Clip
Newks (ENG)
From the EP ‘Credence’ Urban Kickz Recordings.
Audio Stream