If you like your electronic music with a cyberpunk narrative wired through its circuitry, Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai's new "Human Material" EP for Optimo Music might just be for you.
Rachael Williams, aka Ambient Babestation Meltdown's second time around releasing music through Keith McIvor, aka JD Twitch's label, "Human Material", sees the London-based DJ, producer, performance artist and vocalist teaming up with Bristol jungle, dub and techno head Borai for three outer dancefloor jams.
On 'My Heart My Motherboard', they blend a strutting tech house machine beat with Detroit electro-inspired synthesisers, languid spoken word vocals and skippy two-step percussion. Up next on 'You're Malware', things get more glitchy and twitchy as the two collaborators summon up a jittery, vocoded take on acid techno before closing out with 90s hardcore homage 'Do Androids Dream Of Key Lime Pie'. Expect dusty breakbeats, rumbling subs, sci-fi soundtrack-inspired synthesisers and more sultry, spoken femme bot refrains from Williams.
Fun, functional and inventive, "Human Material" is a joy to listen to and think about. Will the sentient robot servants they depict in these songs rise up, fight back, and repair their broken hearts? If Gareth Edwards and Chris Weitz make a sequel to "The Creator," will Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai get the call-up to do some soundtrack work? We'll have to wait and see.
Human Material EP is out now in digital format through Optimo Music (order here)