Maelstrom - The FM Tapes (2024)

Maelstrom returns to Central Processing Unit for the fourth time, and its the one born Joan-Mael Peneaus lengthiest drop on the Sheffield label yet. The French artist has been a mainstay in the European electro game since the 2000s, and Malestrom brings that experience to bear on new LP The FM Tapes. He goes about this album with the assurance of a seasoned pro, combining his mastery of electro production techniques with a trademark guile to craft an expertly-paced eleven-track affair. The first section of The FM Tapes sets out the albums stall with style and aplomb - listeners are in store for a rich feast of off-kilter machine-funk which will feature no shortage of intriguing detours. On opener Ondes Courtes the mix throbs with all manner of strange electronic gristle: a distorted bass hum rattles the monitors; wisps of distortion float across the mix; eerily pretty keys wax and wane before giving way to a radar pulse. Ondes Courtes is an ominous slouch of a scene-setter, and it lines things up perfectly for following cut Alt50ser to lock in. This tracks churning, gurgling mid-tempo rattle brings to mind the wacky insistence of Modeselektor. Maelstrom repeats the slow-fast one-two again directly afterwards - La Vie Sociale Des, a strange nugget that sounds like an early Eski instrumental stripped for parts and blasted into the cosmos, is an ideal prelude to the twitchy space-funk of My Digitone. Maelstroms staying power in the electro world comes, in no small part, from his ability to apply his delightfully idiosyncratic choices to some of the genres staple production tropes. On The FM Tapes, he marks himself out once more as a pleasingly unorthodox talent by taking tracks in unexpected directions to produce surprising - and often rather moving - results. There are multiple cuts here which channel the more cerebral end of Richard D. James AFX/Analord output: My Digitone may be a quicksilver techno-electro number, but theres still something cinematic about the synth treatment here which softens the edges; Suedes minor-key oscillations bring other CPU veterans like Cygnus and Bochum Welt into view; Res 06, one of two Fasme collaborations on the record, is full of pathos even as the beat programming bangs and whirrs throughout. While theres a deep emotional undercurrent to The FM Tapes, though, Maelstroms commitment to bringing the thrills surfaces time and again. If Res 06 had Maelstrom and Fasme getting wistful, the albums other Fasme link-up Trempo is one of the hardest club joints here, a piece of old-school Detroit energy replete with some great cascading drum production. Indeed, Trempo comes in the middle of a run towards the albums end where Maelstrom takes the handbrake off - theres a wild-eyed sense of fun to The Operator and Upside Down DX7 which has one thinking of the zany cut-and-thrust of KiNKs best work. Maelstroms latest drop for Sheffields Central Processing Unit label is an album of leftfield electro numbers that bring both pounding beats and poignant production. RIYL: KiNK, Modeselektor, Cygnus, Bochum Welt, AFX