Recommended: Skirt - Bitten By The Black Dog EP

Since 2010, the Birmingham based Texan known as Skirt has found a home for her abstract techno constructs on the Horizontal Ground label. In what might be considered as an unusual pairing due to Horizontal Ground’s focus on the foundational sounds of techno, Skirt has released three records on the label each exploring meditative and vault-like synthesis. Considering her background in industrial dance music the tone of her productions makes complete sense. Though we love funk loops and hearty vocals there’s something to be said for nonsense techno. This brings us to “Bitten By The Black Dog”, named after the reshape by the legendary UK act The Black Dog, it’s a clear picture of Skirt in her prime.

Stream: Skirt – Miismo (Horizontal Ground)

The Black Dog’s remix of “Collider” is up first and starts off in typical Skirt fashion – eerie synthesis and the chugging of what sounds like water. We’ve never heard the original, but out of all the remixes this sounds the most like her. Gone are the bouncy thumps of her other productions, instead The Black Dog decided on a harsh onslaught of hard kicks and single note sub bass. This may sound bleak, but the bassline goes a long way to smoothing its abrasiveness. Combined with the ambiance of the synths and what we can only assume are snippets of someone breathing, the track becomes a formidable DJ tool. Without a doubt, the highlight of this record is “Miismo”; there’s not much going on, but as we all know the simplest idea often works the best. With all the screeches, chimes, and howls it sounds as though it should soundtrack a train ride, which puts this in the same category as Ben Klock’s “Wolf”. As with all great pieces of techno it slowly pulls you under its spell while an uncharacteristically bright synth weasels its way in, if only for a few moments. This is one of the most functional pieces of techno we have in our bags from Skirt and we don’t plan on removing it anytime soon. “Beatless Collision” first made an appearance on the much talked about Horizontal Ground compilation “Minutes In Ice”. The name couldn’t be any more fitting for this track as it conjures up images of frigid ice lockers in early sci-fi films. Like many influential artists and musicians Skirt operates on the fringe, paying little attention to what is in fashion. Having grown up on nineties techno she knows what she likes, what she wants, and has no problem expressing it in her productions.

Stream: Skirt – Collider (Bitten By The Black Dog) (Horizontal Ground)