PLOY レコード& CD

Review: Fresh from a surprise - but no less surprisingly sublime - appearance on Timedance, Ploy returns home to the Deaf Test imprint he set up as a vehicle for his productions back in 2022. As usual, what's on offer is a fresh-but-nostalgic set of cuts full of audible nods to heavyweight dancefloor styles of the 90s. The A-side boasts two top-notch takes on 'Vortex': the bleep-and-breaks style sub-heavy shuffle of the 'Stripped Mix' and the early 90s UK techno heaviness of the more expansive 'Busy Mix'. Over on side B, trippy and energy-packed throb-job 'In Your Head' is followed by the moody bass propelled breakbeat house of 'Eyes On You' and the early Orbital-esque excellence of 'Sending'.

Review: Ploy pays homage to the urban-mythical nightclub Venue MOT Unit 18 with his new EP 'Unit 18', which has seen a home to his equally legendary club night Deaf Test - named after the artist's deaf left ear. Stinky, Ninety One and Unit 18 are "three rave tracks" in the artist's own words, rushing and dragging through system-ready sonics and with undeniable influences from UK drill, to bassy techno, to dubstep.

Review: Taking a break from his own Deaf Test label duties, Ploy casually drops a terse three-tracker for Timedance here, returning to ravier and bassier roots. Nominally a "mission statement for the party athlete", the EP aims to defend the all-nighterers, wayward party animals and/or the ten-hour-afters-lovers, sonically suggesting that the art of the night out - nightcraft - is a fine art indeed. Or perhaps it's a lost art, hence Ploy's implicit attempt to revive it through song. Case in point: 'Crazy BBY' is the leading star, a snake-charming of unhesitant percs and giant detuned saws. 'Rose' fleshes the latter element out further, making for a clappy-happy alarma; and 'Finally' seems to suggest a quieter coda in Hessle-ific tribal drums and low-level love moans. Perhaps it's an ode to a quieter, more connected moment enjoyed among friends, towards the end of the night.