Layo & Bushwacka!

Storm & Stress Layo & Bushwacka!

After their legendary parties at The End sadly finished, veteran London production and DJ duo Layo & Bushwacka! have continued to champion the finest techno talents with their raw Shake It! parties featuring the likes of Plus 8/Minus boss Richie Hawtin, Minus stars Magda & Marc Houle and many more. It’s those credentials, coupled with their consistent back catalogue, which see the duo return to Plus 8 for a second offering this July in the form of Storm & Stress. Where the last effort focused on the concept of endangered animals, this one is all about military associations and, as such, sees them offer up three appropriately powerful dancefloor weapons. ‘Storm & Stress’ is the first track – a steely tech cut that fuses the detail of a dystopian, darkened landscape with the power of a marauding beat structure. Peeling away the percussion and effects then laying them all on thick once again, the dynamism of the many different lines is what makes this as urgent and propulsive a cut as it is: no two bars are the same as the thing plays out over its seven minute length. The flip, ‘Artillery’ pumps its way through frantic blips and sandy snares with all the intent a prime time techno cut needs, while the digital-only ‘Gunpowder’ is more undulating and glitchy, riding up and down like a stormy sea as it rolls onward with a mobile, subby groove buried deep down below. Myriad filters, effects and alien sounds pepper the airwaves to ensure your mind is as busy as your feet and demonstrate the sort of acute attention to welldesigned sounds that has gotten Layo & Bushwacka! where they are today.