Paula Temple Colonized EP
Colonized, Paula Temple‘s first release since 2006 and her debut EP for R&S, finds the […]
Colonized, Paula Temple‘s first release since 2006 and her debut EP for R&S, finds the producer, DJ, and hardware engineer exploring the starker, more punishing edges of powerful warehouse techno. It’s an effort that finds her diving fearlessly into aggressive percussion and arresting industrial instrumentation, resulting in some effective, no-holds-barred dancefloor monsters.
The title track is the fiercest original, a storm of distorted kick drums, crashing cymbal flashes, and unnerving squeaks and screeches. It’s a savage and straightforward track whose every component is so big that the sheer might of the production tends to overwhelm. Temple’s other EP cuts are composed of similar elements, but are slightly more subdued. “Cloned” and “Decolonized” pit dark, intense percussion against jagged, razor-sharp rave synths to make for a couple more apocalyptic bangers. For the most part, Colonized doesn’t reach beyond that territory for inspiration, which does make everything feel a little generic. For instance, the monosyllabic female vocal, zooming FX, and glitchy beat on “Cloned” are engrossing on their own, but as a whole, the track is a by-the-books burner hewn from booming drums and clipped samples.
Similarly, UK stalwart Perc (a.k.a. Ali Wells) colors within the lines of the warehouse-techno format on his two remixes of “Colonized,” though his “Metal Mix” does kick the blinding intensity up a notch. Blasts of ear-splitting noise make for an enormous break roughly four minutes into the track, momentarily halting its momentum with blaring shrieks before the driving beat sets in again. The “Bubble Mix” is, for the most part, pretty similar to its sibling, but the shrill sounds are scaled back and instead bathed in wavering pads.