Topdown Dialectic - s/t 2013

First time vinyl pressing of where it all began for Topdown Dialectic back in, you guessed it, 2013. The original tape, issued via the shortlived Tailings imprint, was evidence that the still anonymous (?) American producer was the real deal straight out the gate. Submerged and static smeared techno with an eye for detail, hitting a sweetspot between Basic Channel, Actress and Jan Jelenik's Faitiche label that remarkably still sounds fresh ten years on. It's not as if this kind of thing has been in short supply in recent times and you can certainly hear trace elements of sounds that have been explored more recently by labels like Sferic, which just serves to make the whole Topdown world ever more appealing. Perhaps it's the associared mystery around that project that helps, suckers as we are for smoke and mirrors, but that does a slight disservice to the music itself. These are expert productions with impeccable instincts, and who actually made them is neither here nor there when they're so expressive as standalone pieces. As debuts go, s/t 2013 remains a knockout introduction.