They're at it again - Wah Wah Wino out there pulling the rug and warping perceptions. Sworx, a term that could be mistaken for being pulled from that inscrutable alien Aphex-ian lexicon (Aphexicon?), sees label boss Morgan Buckley pair with Ben Donohoe for a 12 track collection of highly altered techno mutations that refuse to sit still in their seat. Coming at the world side-on has long been a calling card approach for Buckley and associates, but even within that context Sworx feels particularly playful and unlocked, conceptually situated somewhere near the late 90s pranksterist zeal of Two Right Wronguns/Asad Rivzi, Aphex & µ-Ziq’s Expert Knob Twiddlers collab, and the near-bucolic wonkiness of Plone. This is really only ‘techno’ in name, drawing instead from a much rangier palette of off-grid sounds, uniting electro and a kind of robo-folk into something strangely uncanny, true cyberdogs from way out. In that sense, Wah Wah Wino is proving itself the true heir to the maverick spirit of Warp and Rephlex. No-one else out there doing it as consistently, inventively nor outright enjoyable as these lot.
FFO: Mike & Rich, Plone, Two Right Wronguns, Who’s The Technician
