Sonic Control vinyl

Synchropone reissue Ellery Cowles' iconoclastic 'Sonic Control' EP, originally released in 1995 on the legendary Djax-Up-Beats label. We've no idea of the kinds of sonic preservatives Cowles injected these beats with, but we do know that the Chicago DJ and producer's debut EP has - to indulge an old but gold phrase - "stood the test of time". Just as it was, the reissue preserves the original's sound, albeit now brings it to marvellous marbled blue splatter vinyl. Best among the bunch here are Cowles' career-definer, 'It's Taking Control', across which the 4x4 still janks and tussles slightly, as though the imperfections of whatever medium it was made with were forcing it to lapse the usual perfect timing of techno. And the title track, too: tintinnabular to the point of tittilating, we're bowled over by its singular, bell-laden universe, by which point it seems more or less proven that Cowles really did exercise at least something along the way towards total "sonic control".