Gesloten Cirkel – Submit X

With the two untitled EP's (M-011 & M-012) that followed this LP, Gesloten Cirkel has provided some quality acid house and techno. With the LP itself, Cirkel creates a more varied electronic terrain, allowing himself, via the LP format, to go off piste from the club vein. On first listen I somewhat dismissed many of the tracks, expecting to be provided with something more thumping on the next. But listening again without the element of expectation and things are received differently.

Strip the LP apart and what you'll find is the first three tracks are fairly dark and gritty electro that are for quite specialist darkened club rooms.

Track 5 is an 80's electro-synth-pop style track with a simple beat and vocoder lyrics, these lyrics are what you'll hear first as track 4 but without any of the beat. A cappella of track 5 essentially.

Track 6 is more electro-IDM, a bit chip-tune but with a pleasing 8-bit style melody toward the end.

Track 7 is more of a house track, reminds me of something from the '92 Sven Väth LP 'Fire'.

Track 8 is electro with an electric guitar... Track 9 is in the vein of the first 3 tracks, dark, plodding electro.

10 is pretty punishing techno with acid bass and a chiseling synth stab running fairly constantly throughout, I'd have to say it's nothing to rave about though. 11, Where's Your Cash, is slow plodding techno that personally can pass me by without me feeling I've missed out on something.

And to close, track 12 is probably my favourite of the bunch; a more relaxed, almost trance track which comes across as a spacious ambient synth melody backed by a sparse, marching techno beat. For an album that contains a majority of darker electro and techno, it's tracks 4, 6 and 12 that make it for me and they are the three lightest offerings. With the exception of track 7 which is the enjoyable housier number I also like.

It is an interesting LP, not what I expected, or indeed hoped for, but to come away liking an ambient track, an IDM style track and a sort of empty trance track is fine. Gesloten Cirkel's 2015 EP's deliver the acid techno goodness the LP stays away from.