Various Artists Mexican EP Craft Music Tomcraft's ever-impressive Craft Music returns to kick the January blues into touch with a very tasty, spicy 4-track collection from himself and three rising artists: the Mexican EP. The label owner's Taco heads up the herd with its fierce electro house stylings. Packing a hell of a punch, it fuses rude synth grunts, super-sharp percussion and all manner of bleeps with bundles of big room appeal. Soaring builds hammered by heavy drums lift the track up into the ether before the futuristic tech-funk groove slams back into life. A perfect set-builder. Solid Snake follow up their recent impressive work with another solid banger: the undulating techno chug of DFWH. Arpeggiated bass, taut bongos and fizzing shakers form a beast of a groove, with layers of extra percussion and FX welded together in potent fashion and a rasping sidewinder of a lead line boring its way through the heart of the track. Tough tackle. It's a deeper approach that SQL take on Inside Myself, opting for wonky, drugged-up techno with a menacing glint in its eye. It's an exercise in subtlety, throbbing bass carefully woven into the root of the track, pitched and glitched vocals twisting around and eerily tribal percussion and textures heightening the tension. David Durst rounds off the EP in dark style with the rumbling Side One. While ostentisbly techno, there's something about its mood that recalls old skool progressive house, all brooding and slow-building with an emphasis on spooky atmospheres. There's nothing overstated; instead the focus here is on heads-down hypnotism. Get involved and zone out.