Clone Basement Series Holland Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Following a relatively quiet year which saw him release just two (admittedly must-check) EPs via Dub Recordings and PLURm Ryan James Ford gets his 2024 campaign underway with his first 12-inch for Clone's Basement Series in almost four years. Inspired in part by the crumbling, concrete-clad surrounds of Tower Hamlets in London, Ford offers up a swathe of Brutalist techno workouts tailor-made for sweat-soaked peak-time sessions and pitch-black basement parties. He begins with the dystopian, funk-fuelled heaviness of 'Bellmarsh', before reaching for fiendishly distorted beats, jacking bass and intergalactic synth stabs on 'Dimples'. 'Extendo' sees the sometime Happy Skull contributor pepper another surging and dusty techno groove with melancholic melodies and vintage Autechre style motifs, while 'Cheese Bin' is as psychedelic as it is dark and foreboding.