Mumdance & Logos (2) – Proto

If only this had just been a 12 inch with Dance Energy on one side and Move Your Body on the flip this would have been my record of the year.

This album is an absolute belter, a sonic allegory for a night on the town that progressively descends more deeply into madness. The first to tracks belie the direction Mumdance and Logos set out in, opening the album in a rather reserved and measured fashion, before taking a hard, unexpected corner into the dark lane that is 'Chaos Engine', and getting steadily more crazed from here onwards. The wailing melodies throughout 'Bagleys' present themselves like a voice in your head, urging you to test the limits of consciousness as you journey through the night, with 'Hall of Mirrors' and 'Move Your Body' steadily building the energy and the tension until the wall-to-wall paranoia of 'Cold' sets in
It's techno disguised as grime, and each track is more unapologetically maddening than the last. Each tune on this album presents a new idea, and a new theme, helping 'Proto' to cast of the sameness that mars so many dance albums (a problem Tectonic's producers rarely fall victim to). Its an album that's as dark as it is playful, and refuses it to pull any punches.