TCR – ‘Study 1: SNAZ’ Cassette [Slip Discs]

Surprised to see some of these kicking around Boomkat still, and recommend grabbing one as soon as possible if you’ve not already. Released on Slip Discs late last year, TCR serves up five cuts of twisted floor music for a wicked cassette release.

Sandwiched between two remixes of Micachu and Tirzah tracks ‘Go’ and ‘I’m Not Dancing’ are the three originals from the UK based producer TCR, also known as Tom Rose, co-director of Slip Discs. These middle tracks are intense and raw, but unlike a lot of music in this vein they manage to retain a playful nature, turning their noodley electronic mayhem and fast-direction changes in to a quirk of the music as opposed to making the disruptiveness the core of the journey.

It’s the eccentric and somewhat good-natured style of TCR that means his originals shouldn’t be mixed up with the works of VHS Head, Aphex Twin or the like (not that they’re without merits). They stand firmly in their own form of glitched-out fuzz, with repetitive hammering beats that never cross too far in to industrial noise over to become unrelatable, but still out their far enough to earn a Chris Cunningham video.

The remixes are real highlights too, balancing it out beautifully, with TCR turning the two workings of Micachu and Tirzah in to high-end wonky tunes with a club vibe that you’ve never heard before. He applies those bizarre electronic elements that twisted his originals to an existing song structure that carries a tune, properly bringing experimental music to the floor.

Man I’d love to drop these remixes live. You could keep the floor moving easily and get away with it with the right tunes either side.

A truly excellent release, right down to the packaging of a hand stencilled pink cardboard box, individually initialled and numbered to 150.

via Slip Discs
SNAZ [SLP009] is the first in a series of deranged dancefloor studies by Tom Rose, for which he is adopting his TCR moniker. Bookended by two remixes of cuts from Micachu’s Meat Batch Mix with Kwake Bass and I’m Not Dancing EP with Tirzah are three TCR originals borne out of an admiration for the producer’s bludgeoning and eccentric dance music. On Leaves, Vixen and Peach, TCR contorts blunted beats into glitched, fuzzy complexity whilst remaining true to the music’s dancefloor function. Just. In his remixes of Go and I’m Not Dancing, the artist remains recklessly playful, with the originals occasionally rearing their heads through the gloop.