Current Value will release his new album, ‘Platinum Scatter’ via Prague’s YUKU label this month. Listen to ‘Weight’ below.
The prolific German drum & bass producer describes his latest 14-track release as his “most conceptual body of work to date”, innovating around the dark, neuro-influenced sound he’s become known for throughout his three-decade career. The abrasive beats of his recent releases on Critical Music and Terminal remain, but like 2021’s ‘The All Attracting’ LP on YUKU, the rhythms frequently break from the grid. Amid strobing flashes of synthetic melody and distorted bass, drum patterns rumble, roll and collapse with avalanche intensity. It’s like listening to the smouldering embers of a drum & bass album; the genre is recognisably there somewhere, but its surface is burnt away, revealing something strange, fractured and new.
Speaking about the release, Current Value, aka Tim Eliot, said: “I designed this album to be something of a focused journey that should work equally as a cerebral listening experience as much as it should function in clubs.” Most of the tracks here are definitely still fit for the dancefloor: ‘Greed’ erupts with a rapid, technoid pulse and dizzying acid squall; ‘Anchor’ sounds like an alien’s interpretation of footwork with a relentless gabber climax; ‘TNM’ and ‘Running State’ are deep-in-the-rave weapons that will disorient and delight peak time ‘floors in equal measure.
Elsewhere, ‘Deep Mind’, ‘Transcript’, ‘Fallout’ and the title track flash, buzz and shatter with a head-scrambling brutality. No track on this album is without its moments of light, however, and often, even in their most violently percussive moments, synthesised atmospheres, melodies and moods glow up from the depths. It’s a testament to Eliot’s dedication to innovation that, tens of releases into his career, he’s still finding new ways to excite and surprise. It’s no wonder he’s found fans in everyone from Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin to Björk.
‘Platinum Scatter’ will be released on 15th September. Pre-order it here.
