Surgeon - Crash Recoil (2LP) [Tresor]

Format: 2x12" in printed sleeve + download card.
CAT: TRESOR351

Tresor Records will release “Crash Recoil”, a new album from Surgeon. It marks Anthony Child’s first techno LP in five years, following a period where he felt uncertainty about his role as a techno producer and found it difficult to find inspiration.

This new album finds him turning to spontaneous techniques to arrive at uncharted territories. “Crash Recoil” is born out of Surgeon’s recent live sets, where he experimented with performance constraints and embraced the twists, turns, and paradoxes that emerged from it. Each new iteration upon consistent MIDI sequences and hardware reconfigured the themes into different constellations, creating an inspiring vortex of unpredictable events where ideas could flourish.

This new approach allowed him to capture the spontaneous energy of his live performances in a way he had never achieved before. “It’s not a live album as it hasn't been recorded in one take during a live performance. In the same way that bands tour their songs before going into the studio to record an album, I was able to explore these themes and hone their effectiveness during my live performances before creating the studio version.”

The result is eight tracks that emphasize a new techno sound for Surgeon, incorporating references from across the musical spectrum. “I can hear Coil, King Tubby, Detroit Techno, and The Cure all mixed in with 30 years of DJing,” says Surgeon about the album.

Melancholic drone-like atmospheres blur around austere, almost drone-like bass lines, crunchy beats, and bubbling arpeggios. The tracks have a unique, potent locomotion, with a heavy advance through harsh terrain, breathing with a free spirit, untethered to a purely studio perspective. We hear manifestations of the same raw material throughout the album, like a textural motif, sculpting new variants and creating a cohesive work full of evocation and memory.