(Techno, Breakbeat, Ambient) Skee Mask - 808BB - 2019, MP3, 320 kbps

Bryan Müller is a drummer, and a damn good one. Percussion—marked by grace, power, and sheer inventiveness—is his calling card. His 2018 album Compro was one of the year's most celebrated techno long-players, and in his scant discography under the name Skee Mask, he’s breathed new life into that well-trodden electronic trope, the breakbeat. In that classic sound, he’s found a sense of wonder that that’s sometimes missing amid the starkness of much modern techno.
A certain whimsy defines his drum loops and percussive arrangements—one that feels both focused and mischievous in its chaotic pace. As Compro made clear, he finds real joy in his drums: In songs like “50 Euro to Break Boost” or the hilarious “Muk FM” he found elation and levity in the tumult of his beats. He also found a way to use drums to tell a story and build a world. Redolent of cyberpunk atmospheres and informed by techno’s most futurist impulses, Compro was interested in dancefloors a galaxy (or at least a century) away. His new EP, a three-track affair called 808BB, feels like a logical continuation of where he left off with Compro.

Following last year’s thrilling Compro, the Ilian Tape label’s breakbeat-techno renegade returns with a three-track EP of club cuts that cleverly flip dancefloor expectations.