Mental Disorder // Flug

Label: Sleaze Records
Format: 12”/Digital
Release Date: 11/02/2013

There is an air of anti-pretension about Glasgow’s thriving Techno label Sleaze Records. The artwork is simple and effective, and their release summaries both concise and accurate. It appears they feel no need to concoct overly indulgent concepts behind the tracks the artist probably had no idea of in the first place. The Mental Disorder EP from Barcelona based Sebastian Lopez, aka Flug fits perfectly in line with this, featuring two functional Flug originals, backed up with two fantastic remixes from Jonas Kopp and Techno veteran Audio Injecton, working under his Truncate moniker.

Title track ‘Mental Disorder’ is dark and imposing, steadily paced blasts of kick drum pound along under slithering percussive rolls and filtered breathy pulses. It is testimony to the quality of the tracks simple foundations that Flug is able to stretch the track over eight minutes, introducing just enough variation to keep the listeners interested.

Jonas Kopp’s remix delivers a more afront interpretation of Flug’s original, taming Flug’s off kilter percussion, instead leading the track with bumping mid range stabs and 808 claps, cutting through the dense atmospheres. The track is somehow transformed into a nail-biting peak time banger from what were fairly humble beginnings provided by Flug and the release is all the better for it.

Kopp’s remix is interestingly closer to Flug’s ‘1K’, which deploys intrusive, screeching sirens alongside a staggered mechanical rhythm. Truncate’s aptly titled ‘Ghetto Jack’ remix of ‘1K’ steals the show however. Similar to Kopp’s remix Truncate provides a more invasive interpretation of the track, making use of jacking claps, accentuated by the infectious ‘check check check’ sample line. Truncate’s relentless output on remix duties is yet to become stale, and this is yet another example of how a simpler approach often brings more character to the table.

Overall, The Mental Disorder EP promotes Techno that plays the long game; the tracks would be perfectly at home in extended seven hour Berghain style sets, due to their functionality, simple but effective grooves and lack of gimmicks. These are the exact traits that have kept Sleaze Records evolving since its inception in 2008, and as part of some kind of sonic manifesto for the label the Mental Disorder EP doesn’t stack up half bad.

• Published
• Feb 16, 2013

• Credits
• Words by Theo Darton-Moore