NHK'KOYXEN

Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g vinyl packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silk screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas* Kouhei Matsunaga returns to PAN with a second volume of his hugely respected 'Dance Classics'. Like much of his beat-driven work, these nine tracks fall into one of two broad categories, either lo-slung hip hop or roiling techno, making use of sheer hi-end tweaks and sour dissonance that push our buttons. Taken as base, primal functions, the tracks build from sonic (mostly low-end) extremeties into complex but propulsive cuts, especially on the rugged, dub-tugged '45' and the ruder South Yorkshire gone Tokyo styles of '101'. Kouhei has a highly attuned feel for head-warping sounds, especially put to great effect with the psychoacoustic trickery of '101' and in the vaulted, convoluted rendering of '747' - all of which sound heavy-as-anything with that Rashad Becker cut.