See also: DJ Gonz - Messenger
My bad - only just getting to these two 12s released via the Jolly Discs offshoot imprint Wain a few weeks back. I understand Wain was conceived as an outlet for the more club-focused sound that wouldn't have made as much sense on JD, though there's some obvious shared appeal. Those with more than half a leg in this world will know DJ Gonz as 50% of the SELN Recordings label co-helmed with Conrad Pack, and with Messenger there's both a continuation of the front-foot, forward-facing techno associated with the few CD-rs they've released and a noticeable mutation of the sound into a more hybridised form of 2step bounce and grime's cold world snap. A continuum of the continuum, then, but also despite the elevated BPM and icy tones, I can hear the call backs to the Jolly Discs world in its evocation of a distinctly British, way-past-midnight dwelling ambience. The Midex four tracker is perhaps even more fascinating, three dancehall-baiting, dub-charmed variants that suddenly transfigure into a fourth oneiric eight minute closer that bears little resemblance to what came before but, as with Gonz, summons the same ghosts of the capital as Enchante's Mind in Camden. The psychogeographic sound of London. When I inevitably find out this was made in Berlin I'm going to be very disappointed.
