RUBENS
Puggies / Vertical Hold
HERB002
Herb Recordings 2007
02 Tracks. 07mins52secs
Format: 7″

RUBENS
Breaking Into Smile
HERB003
Herb Recordings 2007
04 Tracks. 25mins09secs
Format: 12″

Rubens is a Glasgow-based duo formed of Mark Flanagan and Gordon MacDermid. They released their debut album, Carnivalesque, earlier this year on Herb Recordings. As the album is just about to be re-released, the pair have extracted two tracks from it for a very limited seven-inch single, followed by an EP, Breaking Into Smile, also on Herb, featuring remixes from The Black Dog, Kirk Degiorgio and Dextro.

Puggies is a wonderfully ornate and melodic piece with elegant electronic swathes building around a central progressive melodic theme which is not without recalling the Spooky of Gargantuan, albeit in less clubby attires. The result is a fresh and stylish take on classic electronic music which shows a great element of maturity. Vertical Hold evolves on similar grounds, but the pair rely on a much more fidgety rhythmic backbone, giving the track a rather different edge. The leading melody, crafted from an acoustic guitar, continuously swirls around the listener as the backdrop develops into a dense dreamy series of soundscapes.

The Black Dog, Kirk Degiorgio and Dextro provide revised versions of the pair’s Breaking Into Smile, another track taken from Carnivalesque. One of the definite standout moments from the album, the original, also featured here, is another piece of heady melodic electronica which continuously evolves around a central theme, a classic structure pioneered by the likes of The Black Dog and Degiorgio, amongst others, in the early nineties. The Black Dog remix originally settles for much more ambient settings, using the melody as basic structure for a somewhat darker and more abrasive piece which launches into an ecstatic electro-tinted second half, giving the original a rather twisted makeover. Degiorgio, here acting under his As One guise, provides a classic piece of minimal Detroit techno which pushes Rubens firmly on the dance floor. None of the original’s lush rendering is present here, replaced with short reverbs and tight loops, but Degiorgio’s stylish atmospheric treatment is nevertheless worth a listen.

Dextro’s Ewan Mackenzie opts for a much meatier slice of kaleidoscopic electronic music as he distorts the melody into a multitude of parallel elements which he then sets them to erupt one after the other into luminous soundscapes. Dextro manages here at once to remain faithful to the original and craft a wonderfully unique and personal track, and provides in the process the undisputed highlight of this EP.

Herb Recordings
Buy: Breaking Into Smile 12″