GROTTO EP, HUGO GERANI/DAN WHITE MIXES by BASIC MIND

The first release on the Perth imprint Cosi Cosi, Basic Mind's Grotto catalyses some of the great innovations of both Continental and Atlantic analogue techno; 80s formalism, late Drexciyan funk, darkroom acid; and indeed is one of Australia's purest sources of that ultra-orthodox, hardware-based sound.Grotto' is thoroughbred Meganesian techno with a boisterous earworm bassline, recalibrating to mirage-perfect funk in the track's close. Airborne and ruminative 'Laika' is late night Indian Ocean sea shore acid, guided over peaks and troughs with virtuosic restraint. The Gerani remix of 'Grotto' takes that track's subsurface rave inclinations and refracts them for the warehouse, frenetic but with oceanic shimmer; in contrast, DW's 'Digital Bassline fix' deploys Chain Reaction dub chords to explore 'Laika''s low end, shining the most in its final three minutes when it settles into a fathoms-deep scuba lounge groove.