I followed a link on Twitter the other night to Fact Magazine's 20 Best House And Techno Records of 2016 and started digging. I haven't got through them all yet but am having fun delving. The fact that I knew hadn't heard of pretty much any of them and knew almost nothing about any of them was-
a) a bit over-facing
b) a bit daunting and
c) proof that I'm well out of touch. But
d) shows that end of year lists have a useful purpose.
This one is really good. Released back in May on Where To Now? Records it starts with a echo-laden woman's voice and then a crisp beat. Icy waves of synth come in and some buzzes and beeps, layers of recorded noise with the rhythm becoming more complex. The narration continues intermittently but I'm never being quite able to make out what she's talking about. The moans five minutes in start to clear things up. BBC Radiophonic Workshop gone laptop techno. Lovely stuff.
Machine Woman (Anastasia Vtorova) was born in Leningrad, raised in Nottingham and now lives in Berlin (this song is very Berlin).
