Polytechnic Youth Schallplatten & CDs

Review: North London label Polytechnic Youth return with a veritable blissed-out breaks raver from Self Modifier (real name Peter Duggal). A posthuman breakbeat transcension if we've ever heard one (the artist name Self Modifier really says it all), 'Lozells Drone Survey' is oddly blissful when juxtaposed with its clinical, machinic name, as well as the knowledge that Duggal is the current partner-in-crime of ex-Kraftwerk legend Wolfgang Flur. With the EP recalling Duggal's childhood spent growing up in inner city Birmingham during the Thatcher years, 'Edifices' and 'Flyover Lament' are two affirmations of the escape into musical flights of fancy, amid a climate of fear and imminent nuclear threats. So take heed, contemporary subjects of dystopia; the lessons learned then may apply to now; sit back and soak in the string-laden nostalgia of this wonderwork.