Short Span is the new record label from Matthew Kent, known to many for running Blowing Up The Workshop, a much-loved and much-missed mix series that gave the world 100% Galcher. In 2017, Kent and Andrea Zarza, a curator at the British Library's sound archive, established the label Mana Records, which aimed to work "at the intersection of contemporary and archival sound." After 20 releases across seven years, Matthew and Andrea decided to put Mana to bed, and there’s a wealth of complex and rewarding music to investigate.

With a name that nods to the fact that everyone's attention is shot to shit these days, Short Span comes across very much as a love letter to the vinyl format. To quote the promo sales notes, Short Span will focus on “longer, dubbed out, ambient and flowing tracks. techno, minimal, bass and groove. Chosen and cut to drop the needle on and just let it play for a while. for warming up, coming down, or never leaving the house.”

Australian producer Sa Pa has these bases covered on The Fool, a self-deprecatingly-named four track 12" that expands on the approach he's been cooking on records for Mana and Astral Industries among others. If you're not familiar, think introspective explorations of the outer realms of dub techno, crackled ambient and monged-out sound design. Buried beyond the vinyl crackle of Deepchord-riffing opener “CAPTIGON” is a compelling funk. Well more a decaying, foggy memory of a compelling funk that gently unfurls over 8 minutes. A-side companion “So Simple” veers into more abstracted rhythmic terrain, with a barely-perceptible vocal sample fighting for breathing space with as grid-less drum patterns swagger around drunkenly amidst claustrophobic FX.

“Boredom Memory (Extended Memory)” offers up the most compelling example of Sa Pa’s twisted rhythmic palette, bending a heat-treated bass line around a long 13-minute minimal techno groove. This track in particular justifies the label's line: "switch on your sub or find one to borrow!" To close out, “Gausian Ecstacy” drops any rhythmic intentions, to hone in on ambient sound design that plays around with textures of static and distant piano. Excellent, otherworldly evocative photography on the artwork for this record from Bankhead too!

The Fool is out now and is available on Short Span's Bandcamp and all good record shops.