The title track grinds upwards through the gears, vertically driving upwards and upwards. The sounds aren't massive; there's no a big bass element to it. It's the sound of fierce, insistent propulsion. The second track, "Kurgan" is more dubsteppy, but again has a great revving monstrousness in the heart of it. And the bit in Highlander when the Kurgan quotes Neil Young; "It's better to burn out than to fade away". It rattles the cowbells and struts syncopatedly.
"Hut" has even more dubstep deathray sizzling through the middle of it, throttling back and forward in an anchorless fidget. Then Machinedrum has a go at it, and it's more skeletal, like the joints in the sound are being joined. And then more and more of the dots get joined until it's thick as nautical rope. DS1's swipe at "Eel" has smokey, monk-like keyboard chills and then some Eighties sounding slickness congealing on top like night-out puke. In a good way; I mean that in a good way.
BD1982's version of "Kurgan" is nowhere. Dev79 & Thrills' remix of "Hut", however, tickles my cochlea from the outset and keeps them involved in a weird fashion. Squelches of liquid confusion swell up into dense balloons of noise. There's a sound like quacking; metal flying ducks over the hearth. ID has a crack at "Kurgan" too and it pops and cracks joints and shuffling motion. I likes it. It sets a frame of old school house somehow, maybe it's the handclaps or a sense of room inbetween the details.
Rating: Dancefloor out of Swordplay
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