No time stolen here

At the risk of looking like I want to feature someone – here’s another one from El Choop. With recent releases on highly respected labels like Echocord and Etui, he is a pretty busy man already. So what do you do when another label gives you a call and suggests a nice little collaboration with a guy like Ohm? You say hell yeah and grab another one of those energy drinks.

There are plenty of reasons, but I guess for a young and upcoming artist like Harvey Bones it must be pretty sweet to join forces with a guy that has published outstanding work for more than two decades on some pretty legendary labels. Bjarnar Jónsson – an Icelander that calls Copenhagen his home now – started his career on the good old Force, Inc. in 1999 and just kept going and going.

Ranges is just the right label for the two of them. The home of Hydergine and Kaelan may not have the busiest of release schedules – but their artist selection is superb. Anyone that gets James Zeiter to put out something on their label can only be congratulated. Which means that Ohm and El Choop are in great company here.

And this is not a split EP with both artists contributing separately, it’s a truly collaborative effort. Fortunately. Looking at their recent releases it appears that Ohm benefits from a little more punch with El Choop by his side, and El Choop will surely have welcomed the extra dose of depth his partner contributes.

We definitely don’t get our time stolen by these two gentlemen. They serve three straight and solid Techno tracks with a good dose of Dub blended in and top it off with a remix by another guy from Iceland, Jónas Thor Gudmundsson a.k.a. Octal Industries.

The title track is clean and tidy, driving and tight with a nice and buzzing kick. “Decryption” comes with some added swing and funkiness with classic work on chords and stabs, and “Ballistics” nicely lays a lot of echo space over a very dense drum track for some really fine late night material.

These two guys really complement each other – and the only way to top it is to add yet another dimension. In comes Octal Industries. His take on “Stolen Time” pushes forward way more than the original with a heavier and dirtier kick, occasionally doubled for added punch and energy, paired with chords and echo effects that let us understand how he got to collaborate with Deepchord back in 2004. This is as much big floor as it is deep and dubby – and will consequently stay in my bag for quite a while.

I hope Ohm and El Choop will be okay with my impression that the Octal Industries remix kind of steals the show – after all, they delivered the strong original. 4 tracks, 4 likes and an added smile.

Release for review:
OHM / EL CHOOP – STOLEN TIME EP – RANGES – RANGES11

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