The hardware radicalists, that are The Analogue Cops aka Lucretion & Marieu and Steffi, present their unification in the studio as Third Side as an LP including the best productions of the past year and this latest LP serves as both a proclamation of their shared love for the analogue sound and as a breath of fresh air for techno. ‘The Absolute’ kicks things off with rippling snare drums, a warm bass line and a sweet cocktail of atmospherics and effects. Restoration friend, nd_baumecker joins the team on ‘Jackie’, where a chopped up vocal is carried backwards and forwards by an edgy drum machine workout. ‘The Base Of All Matters’ is a progressive, heads-down beat filled with crispy snares and disjointed chords, but the trio really get going on ‘Gauge Fields’ – where a frenetic mixture of synth stabs and effects is swallowed by a montrous, syncopating bass line. Side C begins with ‘Unity’, a powerful techno tool which has recently been remixed by Steffi herself, Blawan and the mysterious Nightjars. ‘Subsequent Stages’ enters lighter house territories but still retains that signature Third Side rawness and minimalism. On the flipside, ‘Fundamental Forces’ introduces a heavy, bumping beat floating over a sea of euphoric voices and distant melodies. Finally, the amptly names ‘Shit On Me’ featuring Virginia (the talented singer and songwriter responsible for the astonishing vocals tracks ‘on the rousing hit Yours’, and on the touching ‘You Own My Mind’, both released on Berlin’s Ostgut Ton in Feb 2011) closes things off with a nasty, twisted percussion which evolves into a more experimental, bass-fuelled anthem for the small hours. Real techno excursions for the coinnasseurs.
