PLASTIKMAN (aka RICHIE HAWTIN) has spent five years perfecting his new abum "Closer" from his remote Canadian outpost, and from what I've heard of it, it's a record concerned with deep self-analysis, dysfunctionality and dissecting the ego in general. Ultra-minimally, like.
And certainly this all rings true on the basis of "Disconnect," which is some of the strangest, wonked-out, somnambulent electronica you're liable to encounter this side of a flotation tank. Subliminal bass loops and bloopy circuitry pulse like a diseased heartbeat, while a terminally slowed down robotic voice talks of: "I try in vain - to disconnect my brain." Doesn't sound like it was in vain, actually, but whatever: the effect is numbing and weirdly nihilistic. Possibly he's examining the idea of withdrawing from the world as we know it, but I could be reading this too literally.
The minimalism gets pared even further back on the EP's two other tracks, "Headcase" and "Digital/ Divide." The former is OK on headphones as its' subterranean dub factor kicks in and sounds vaguely reminiscent of Pole, though not quite as clinical and squeaky clean, but it goes on too long, a criticism that could also be hurled forcibly at "Digital/ Divide", which is basically just an odd, rising electro-scale, drawn out and repeated to breaking point. Unless you're in a particularly indulgent frame of mind it's liable to annoy pretty damn quickly.
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Richie Hawtin's an interesting, reclusive character, and his continued contribution to the ultra-minimal edge of electronica cannot be denied. Intriguing as "Disconnect" is in itself, though, this isn't really the kind of thing that'll work as a single and whatever it's undoubted merits, I imagine it would work far better as part of a longer, more cohesive whole.
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