The irresistible force of Ambivalent and the immovable object JPLS team up on MINUS74 for a collaboration that can only mean trouble for the dancefloor. Individually, both producers have garnered reputations for music that inhabits the outer reaches of reality, so it goes without saying that this meeting of minds will be a trip well worth taking. Recorded in Berlin rather than their native US while preparing for a set of European dates, the project came about after Richie had the foresight to give them access to his studio. Occasionally sitting down together to familiarise themselves with the outlandish collection of hardware that inhabits the place, a collection of tracks evolved over time with the pair taking turns to tweak and freak the machinery until they arrived at a place they could both call home. The resulting EP features a collection of sparse, skeletal grooves dominated by the various percussion driven versions of Back/Frontstab. It’s a perfect example of how to boil down an idea to its purest form and then run it through the rinser although there’s a lot more going on than meets the ear, for example the rich sense of space they achieve is a subtle yet defining quality of this release, allowing each track to breathe with a life of its own. Creep is a high-grade mixing tool utilizing a division of eerie, hypnotic loops that join forces with a strolling subsonic bassline to patrol a constantly shifting landscape of texture and tone. As the track unfurls a distant, snaking hihat roll gradually constricts around the dancefloor until the intensity level reaches critical. The jerky, jacking percussion layers that dominate the opening stages of Frontstab soon make way for more heavy-duty psychedelics that morph and melt into the foreground. The body catches fire as the mind begins to unravel to the twisted bass vibrations that resonate ominously across the sonic spectrum. Finally, Stalker2 introduces a modulating acid pulse, circling sci-fi drone and distant ghostly chime before letting it rip with a monster kick pattern that takes the dancer to the point of climax before drawing back to begin the courtship again. It’s another topnotch mixing tool that offers much in the way of manipulation while bounding effortlessly forward with a mechanical spring in its step and as with all the tracks on offer here, the simplicity of design encourages the listener to examine the richness of each sound in real detail. The original version of Backstab is like walking in your own footprints with each additional step imperceptibly altering the depth and outline of the original indentation until it bares no resemblance. The gentle shifts in timing of the percussion delay fold in and out on themselves while the pulsing synth-motif totally mesmerises as it expands and contracts, lazily pitching up and down against the sultry beats. The dedicated JPLS remix continues to focus on the elegant interplay of the original, slowly warping and morphing at almost unnoticeable speeds over a deeper, chugging linear groove. Easy on the ear but highly complex in both conception and execution it gives you the feeling someone’s broken into your home, stolen all the furniture and replaced it with exact replicas.