- Josh Quirke's brand of electronica apparently takes its inspiration from "the rhythmic, clattering sounds of the industrial machines that soundtrack his day." Listening to it, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a response to a different kind of labour—not the rhythmic drudgery of factory work so much as the high velocity travelling-without-moving that comes with spending your workdays jacked into the net. The EP's two central tracks are maximalist in orientation, all hyperactive kick patterns, brutally side-chained chords and high-impact climaxes. Their closest precedent is perhaps the synthetic overload of patten, but Quirke's approach feels more incisive, his sounds (just about) remaining contained within conventional song structures.
In the case of "Break A Mirrored Leg," this works—you get swept along in it, even (or perhaps especially) when it hits a bracing crescendo in the latter half. On partner piece "There's A Half Moon In Your Mouth," the pieces don't fit together so well. Its twitchy garage-inflected beat, while aligning Quirke with some of his Young Turks labelmates, feels far more mundane. He seems to try to compensate by making the points of impact even more extreme; the track feels like it's lurching back and forth. Our frazzled nerves are soothed with a pair of shorter tracks, "Landed" and "Acid Beth," which are both pleasant but not much more than sketches.
TracklistA1 We Landed
A2 Break A Mirror Leg
B1 Acid Beth
B2 There’s A Half Moon In Your Mouth