Cousin

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𝙎𝙮𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙮'𝙨 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙁𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙖𝙠𝙖 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙙𝙪𝙗 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙤 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙤𝙣 '𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙎𝙤𝙤𝙣', 𝙛𝙤𝙜𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙚𝙙-𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙯𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙚𝙪𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙘 𝙥𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙮 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝-𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙧𝙝𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙢𝙨.

As the boss of Moonshoe Records, Fester has been a key component of the Aussie horizontal techno movement, and while he drifts into moodier territory on 'HomeSoon', there's still the kind of swagger that only comes from bright sunlight. After the breezy, mostly beatless opener 'Catsu', Fester gets into the groove with 'Overpass', a 10-minute melter that's packed with all the tricks you know and love from Deepchord or Deadbeat, but without the chilly, greyscale hue.

Fester's inspiration for the record came from a "weary-eyed walk" on the morning of New Year's Day near a forest, where the plants and flowers seemed to spring to life. His productions mimic this motion with their rippled fluidity; the dub elements suggest the natural world, and the relentless, driving minimal thumps the attempt at communication. The process is most successful on closing track 'Citta', a tweaky, skeletal wafter that's more complex than it first seems, hiding its psychedelic, ASMR tweaks and warbles under driving, Oakley-strength bumps.