LOW 015 - I:gor - 'Znak Zapytania'

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Artist: I:gor
Title: Znak Zapytania
Label: Low Res Records
Catalog#: LOW 015
Format: Vinyl, 12"
Country: US
Released: 2003
Genre: Electronic
Style: IDM, Breakcore
Credits: Mastered By - Dave Feeny

A1. Death's Sadistic Design (4:23)
A2. Wizja I Kompromis (3:35)
B1. Happy Mechanical Unit (3:21)
B2. U*R My Survival (5:05)

easily the best record yet on low res.yup,better than the venetian snares seven's.med ep.there,i said it.4 super crispy tracks that plunder and crush idm,jungle,and breakcore into one relentlessly good 12 inch.from the opening seconds of death's sadistic design,you know its sure to turn heads.pay attention as the track eerily morphs its way into a drunken game of quarters on a saturday night.wizjalkompromis starts of nice and glitchy and progresses to mash up the place with its constant change ups.don't mix out too early,the second break is sure to get the walls rattlin,and the asses shaking.flip for happy mechanical unit...a heavy roller complete with melodic synths and some super ill bass.finally,u r my survival closes the record out in proper style.tight drum and bass thats hard enough to make it into the bags of the breakcore ranks,but don't be surprised to find this one killin floors at drum and bass nights across the globe."

soundclash dist.

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LOW RES 015 I:GOR 'Znak Zapytania' label art side A LOW RES 015 I:GOR 'Znak Zapytania' label art side B

"This is the Low Res debut 12" by Igor Wilkonski from Poland who made it onto the Detroit-based label through an apparently stellar CDR demo. The A-side begins inauspiciously enough, with a tired spooky spoken-word sample that didn't exactly make me look forward to the EP's contents. But I:GOR is indeed a stellar producer- and this is a hard-rocking and super-funky set of bleepy electronics that touches on elements of jungle, electro and breakcore. The 12" opens with "Death's Sadistic Design", a clean mix of bleep tones, synth strings, delicate hi-hats and metallic-sounding drums. The subtle funk groove is interrupted by the sound of a coin bouncing off a table- the echoed remnants of this sound become looped and incorporated into the track- a really slick production maneuver. A shadowy amen-like break is slowly folded into the mix. The amen is ghostly and never takes flight as the string sounds and bleeps take us to the finish. "Wizja Kompromis" begins with a glitched-up fuzzy break intro and features much heavier kick-drum attack and a faster more aggressive tempo. Still, the groove gets continually strangled by odd glitches until the funk finally gets unleashed- and its a seriously rocking frenetic mix of morphing breaks and samples over thick head-nodding beats. This doesn't last long, as Wilkonsky throws in cartoon robot-voices and distorted screams as he continues to chop up the beats, shooting the track into all sorts of unexpected directions. Again, there is an amen break hiding in there somewhere but one can only catch a glimpse of it. The track implodes and collapses into highly detailed shards and snippets of bleepy noise. Excellent. The B-side is a little less cut-up, and lets the grooves build a little momentum. "Happy Mechanical Unit" is a straight sounding snare-heavy jungle-ish groove, full of deep sub bass, twinkly 'piano' melody loops and stretched-out breaks. A touch of distortion and sudden EQ/FX morphs add detail but on the whole this tune feels almost ambient and minimal compared to the flip. My favorite track on this EP might be the last one, "U*R My Survival", which mixes some of the unexpected change-ups of the A-side with an unstoppable funk / jungle groove. Doomy synths and zooming distorted bass lines build up density as the groove grows thicker and faster, slowly moving from serious head-nodding to furious head-banging. The amen makes another brief cameo in the depths of the mix almost as a subtle tease. The press release touts this 12" as the best record on Low Res- I'm not too sure about that but it's a damn fine one- and Igor Wilkonsky is a name to remember."

Carlos Pozo / Angbase