Heatsick - Deviation 12" (Pan)

I'm slightly amazed that all these sounds come out of an old casio keyboard.

Wait, got to start the review again. Made the classic error of playing the record at 45rpm rather than 33rpm. Took a while and then there were some chipmunk vocals. "Wait a second" i thought......

Sounds good at either speed though. Always the sign of a good record! It's kind of outsider techno. Someone from the experimental leftfield doing techno so it's got a weird and woozey feel to it that straight techno doesn't. It's all very intricate and thoughtfully constructed though. Like all techno it's building blocks are repatitive motifs of drum machine and synth parts. But it's all from an old casio keyboard which gives it a very unique sound although not one you'd immediately associate with casio keyboards. At some points it's got a sound reminiscent of the initial 80s electro stuff when the rules of techno hadn't been set in stone. Kind of a more on-the-fly i-wonder-what-this-button-does ooh-that-sounds-good thing.

It's on Pan Records who are becoming an experimental label you can really trust to put out quality stuff. None of that thrown together in 20 minutes shitty noise CDr thing here. They always have great packaging too. This Heatsick 12" looks like some kind of giant mint with the white vinyl and the green design screened onto the clear sleeve.

You can also get a FLAC version of it from Boomkat for the very reasonable price of £2.95 - http://boomkat.com/downloads/547979-heatsick-d-viation. And this is what they had to say about it:-

Berlin's Steven Warwick aka Heatsick brings his sultry, sexy hypno-disco back to PAN on this kaleidoscopic four-track EP. An exercise in making the most of what you've got, 'Déviation' explores all of his Casio keyboard's moistest functions to create glistening lo-fi dance tracks that glow with a smudged rainbow of influences spanning Fela Kuti to Todd Terry while reminding of everyone from his peer Design A Wave, right thru to Omar Souleyman. That title track finds pure pleasure in tweaking the Casio's basest Caribbean rhythms until their dry frictions drip, evolving from a skeletal Dancehall-Disco grind into slow-motion synth cascade with illusive sleight of hand. This is followed by the perambulating 'C'était un Rendez-vous', a slack-hipped strutter locked into a lather of decelerated House chords and walking bassline creating a balmy atmosphere for your boy's drawled vocal and smooth-to-free sax licks from André Vida. Flipside they boost the BPM's by ooh, at least 10, for the grubbily mesmerising 'Stars Down To Earth' and the concluding jack of 'No Fixed Address', the 12"'s most obvious nod to Todd Terry's blocky party jams. For fans of 100% Silk, Ron Hardy or Jamal Moss, this is just on-it.

There will probably be more stuff getting reviewed with links to buy it from Boomkat. The electronic music world seems to have it's shit together so much better in terms of having independent digital shops.