News / / 25.04.14

Mark E

Product of Industry (Ghostly International)

13/20

Crown prince of the West Midlands dance scene Mark Evetts came to most people’s attention with his deft, floor-filling edits and remixes. Since the bountiful bundle compiled on the twin 2010 compilations on his own Merc label, the Birmingham based DJ/producer has pumped out exquisite material for imprints like Running Back, Spectral Sound and Needwant, each indelibly stamped with his signature blend of detail-heavy disco-suffused house.

The PR puff that accompanies this full length debut for Ghostly International trumps up Evett’s geographical positioning, connecting the dots between Black Sabbath and the decline of the manufacturing industry and hinting at a record that thumps, pumps, and clumps along solidly. They’ve got it spot on, Product of Industry is just that: nine deep, dark, solid, ossifying groove-chassis’ that bask in the joy of repetition. It’s an essentially sturdy album, a set of low BPM rollers that chug through the fog of dry-ice cannons. A liminal space where innately euphoric piano house one-two chords mingle with spacey pads and ice pick sharp percussion; a heads down stomp of a record that, sadly, occasionally slows down into a plod. Happily, the highs like Kultra Kafe’s club-kosmische or the nearly-schaffel stomp of Myth of Tomorrow, just about outweigh the lows like the corny vocals that derail Being Hiding or the meandering weariness of Egamix.

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Words: Josh Baines

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