- Posh Isolation's catalog is wide-ranging and mercurial. Kristian Emdal and Simon Formann, the duo known as Age Coin, have been ensconced in the Danish label for years. In addition to their interests in industrial, techno and ambient, they share a post-punk background and have been in synth and pop bands in the past. On Performance, Age Coin's debut album, these qualities are abundantly clear.
The duo have previously kept to a brooding, sinister sound, but this music breaks out of the gloom (typified by the breezy, skittering "Raptor") and uses a broader stylistic palette. The results are inventive and refreshing, disconnected from DJ formalities and yet thoroughly digestible in the dance.
"Damp" is the album's centrepiece. It opens with a breathy swell and drops to the floor, where it unleashes a downpour of cranky, syncopated beats. "Esprit," "Monday" and "Protein" also explore this kind of snaking, palpitating techno. With its swinging, smokey nature, it could be described as industrialised bass music—think Szare set up in a warehouse with mics and a few power tools.
The two "Domestic" compositions are strange, wonderful anomalies. The first makes a curious connection between droning strings and a buzzsaw, and the second begins as a piano soliloquy, a transmission that's eventually corrupted with static. Both seem to point to where the album got its title, but the fantastic rhythms deployed elsewhere are more memorable. It's an avant-garde album inspired by the club, without any of the pretense that could entail.
Tracklist01. Esprit
02. Domestic I
03. Monday
04. Protein
05. Raptor
06. Damp
07. Domestic II
08. Headron