HARMONIC 313
When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence
WARP175
Warp Records 2009
15 Tracks. 57mins58secs

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“Music is now a thing of the past”. With this small detail settled, on Music Substitute System, one could just turn the page and think of other things. The past is, after all, quite important in the case of Mark Pritchard, and is certainly substantial enough to satisfy without the need of adding any new sections to it. That’s where he was in turn Global Communication, Chameleon, Reload or Jedi Knights with Tom Middleton; Link or Troubleman alone, and was involved in truck-loads of other collaborative efforts, scattered on too many labels to care to mention.

His latest project, Harmonic 313, is an offshoot of Harmonic 33, the vessel he created with Dave Brinkworth at the end of the nineties. Swapping the vintage sci-fi library of Harmonic 33 for the equally old school vibe of Detroit techno, 313 referring to the ailing Motor City’s area code, Pritchard delivered a first angular and playful EP, soberly entitled EP1, last year. When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence continues on a similar tone, neatly packing 8-bit-drenched fidgety melodies, rumbling bass lines and twisted grooves into two minutes short of an hour. In Pritchard’s expert hands, the array of genres scanned, from greasy electro and gritty hip-hop to clean-cut acid and dirty techno, becomes one happy accident where nothing sounds like it should, works like it should or behaves like it should. It is, of course, all very much like he intended it to work, and work it does rather well.

All the way through, tracks develop in the most unexpected ways, at times stepping right in dubstep grooves that sounds like they were squeezed out of a Gameboy with very little shelf-life left in it (Dirtbox, Cyclotron C64 SID), or sounding like a happy slapping party (No Way Out), at others drifting along almost ethereal digital streams (Köln or the soulful Falling Away, with vocal contribution from Steve Spacek) or pushing deep into arcade territory (the Speak-&-Spell-tastic Word Problems or the more grown up Don’t Panic).

There is, it seems at first, very little flow as such, and certainly nothing that ties this jolly mess together in any coherent way. But Pritchard is no fool and works hard behind to direct the overall current exactly where he wants it to go. The result can be quite demanding at times, as the mind is constantly focused on new or altered components, and the flow of data thrown at it only seem to increase as the record progresses. A bit like with a giant maze, the trick is to step back and contemplate the whole thing from a distance; only then does the span of this album become tangible, and it becomes obvious that machines still have a long way to go to even dream of catching up with Pritchard’s intelligence.

4.3/5

Mark Pritchard (MySpace) | Warp Records
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HARMONIC 313
EP1
WAP231
Warp Records 2008
06 Tracks. 22mins43secs
Format: 12″/Digital

Mark Pritchard certainly needs no introduction. From his time as one half of Global Communication, responsible for one of the finest ambient albums ever released, to various other projects, solo, with Tom Middleton or others (Jedi Knights, Reload, Link or Troubleman to name but a few), he has made an undeniable mark on electronic music. His latest project sees him remodel Harmonic 33 by adding a one between the threes and move away from the down tempo, library music-infused sound he has developed with Dave Brinkworth on the pair’s two albums to turn his attention to classic Detroit techno and eighties electro pop.

This first H313 release is something of an audio-visual feast. Each track on EP1 is only identified as Problem 1-5 for the 12″ and Problem 1-6 for the digital version, with the real titles colour-coded. This is combined with a game on the H313 website, which, once all tracks have been correctly identified, gives access to an additional track, not available on any other format. Expanding on the playful aspect, Problem 1 sees Pritchard rewind time and land in the middle of a Speak & Spell exercise driven by the cold and robotic processed voice that terrorised legions of children into spelling correctly. Pritchard then deploys an 8-bit carpet of noises and bleeps which sounds like Kraftwerk on a day trip to a Pac-man nursery school. The heavy beat contrasts radically, bringing the pace down and giving the track a much more serious undertone. The second piece functions in pretty much the same way, minus the vocals, but here Pritchard integrates a short melodic pattern to lighten up the mood. Problem 3 and 4 clearly reference early nineties Detroit by applying different aspects of the scene to each piece. While the former rides on warm analogue waves, with occasional shaded vocals and a comatose groove as backbone, the latter is drenched in acid squelches and progresses lazily over its four minutes, recalling in part Luke Vibert’s I Love Acid of a few years back. The 12″ concludes with the short Speak & Spell outburst of Problem 5, while, on the digital version of the EP, Problem 6 reviews Problem 1 by removing all vocal content and revealing the piece in all its glory.

The bonus track Problem 7, which is only available to download, for free, from the Harmonic 313 website once the six previous problems have been resolved, brings H313 right into the twenty first century by stamping a frisky dubstep beat over bleeps and deep granular noises.

This first release as Harmonic 313 pays tribute to some of Mark Pritchard’s grounding roots. EP1 is a playful collection of electronic tracks which pave the way for a more expanded project, developed over the course of a full album, later on in the year.

3.7/5

Harmonic 313 | Warp Records
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