ITAL TEK - THE MAKO EP (ATOM RIVER)

November see’s Planet Mu’s Ital Tek release four tracks of deep, cerebral, tech tinged dub music from the creative comfort of his newly formed Atom River imprint. 
The Mako EP retains much of the intelligently un-nerving feeling of his previous releases. Third track Manhattan especially embodies the flawlessly programmed, Tobin-on-prozac-esque battering of terrifyingly clinical drums, acres of reverb and ominous flashes of heavily effected discord so consumately exhibited on his Cyclical album last year. There’s a twist, however. This EP see’s Ital Tek’s output drift into much more melodic, synth-driven territory. The title track, for example, begins innocuosly enough with a thumping, heads down 140 bpm beat, but is transformed on the drop by a simply gargantuan bassline, cosmic sustained chords and a huge, warbling lead, into an epic star-gazer of a tune.
This shift is present in all the tracks here and marks a new and exciting direction for Ital Tek’s creative powers. Keeping the testosterone heavy beats and edgy dissonance but marrying these ingredients with an almost, dare I say it, trance-like array of fattened basslines and proudly synthetic chord progressions and melodies, Alan Myson is pushing his already blindingly innovative sound a little further into the light.

Words by Chris Lawes.