Source

Hungarian sound artist Gabor Lazar released juddering, electro-shocked convulsions on several releases during the mid-2010s, then made a striking shift toward danceable permutations of grime, garage, and techno with 2018s Unfold. Source brings the producer to Mike Paradinas esteemed Planet Mu stable, and it builds from Unfolds template, with deeper, more elastic bass eruptions snaking through the precisely cut click-beats. The music is overall brighter and more vivid than Lazars past works, with wavy synth textures splashing against the contorted but locked-in rhythms. Phase has a whole lot of fun smearing twisted bass growls over slicey, dicey beats which bend but never collapse. Excite is a bit less linear, with jittery beats resembling dancehall-infused IDM, and surging electro synths keeping it all above ground. Then tracks like Effort and Route overdose on Korg Triton-style grime basslines, blowing the bass sounds up and swerving them around hyperkinetic beat patterns. Lazars busy, contorted rhythms are so exciting and inventive that it actually ends up being quite startling when he unexpectedly ends the album with a sparse, reflective ambient track. Otherwise, Source is filled with plate-shifting rhythmic explorations as powerful and mind-expanding as anything by Rian Treanor, his father Mark Fell, or Basic Rhythm. ~ Paul Simpson