Christian Varela & Marco Bailey - CVMB [Materia]

Materia, from Belgium, shows their preference for hard-hitting angles of techno in Christian Varela and Marco Bailey’s new split release, proving that crisply produced Motor City heat need not descend into triteness or monotony.

Bailey, the apparent lynchpin of the label, occupies three of the vinyl’s sides with Wraith, Freal and Shadowed Path, where perfectly defined and resolved chords interweave with incisive kick drum hits. Varela takes up only a quarter of the groove space with Lac Operations, an undercurrent of neuronal basslines and rapid, precise machine responses.