FLUG “The Collection” (Quartz Rec)

Having carved out a lane truly his own in the often harshly competitive world of techno, Argentinian-born / Barcelona-based producer Sebastian Lopez, alias Flug, has long proven to be no bit player in the scene and his compositions have kept signalling a fighting fit producer, whose highest standards of floor skippering and experimentation-friendly approach have never failed him over the years.

Resurfacing three years after the drop of his debut vinyl album, ‘In Safe Hiding‘, Flug clocks in on Quartz Rec with ‘The Collection‘ – a long-player bound to reconnect fully with the club and produce very energetic tracks that represent the techno he loves playing during his DJ sets. All tracks were originally written on tour, on the plane or in hotel rooms to better capture the dancefloor’s vibe, using field recordings from around the globe and later processed in the studio via his analogue arsenal of preference.

Displaying the many octaves of his craft through great spreads of high-impact club engineering and frenzy-whipping mechanics, Flug takes us on a pulsating ride across the history of dance music – taking cues from Detroit’s own cosmo-telluric tramplers from back the Underground Resistance armada’s heyday, the Roman scene’s classic acidulous four-to-the-floors, Berlin’s big-room-busting DNA, dredged with a hint of dubby exploratory manoeuvres a la Maurizio.

Both mineral in strength but liquid in its flowing abilities, Lopez’s newest extension into the deep and intricate realms of club music collages without pastiching, extracts without bleeding dry, forming the backbone to an assortment of cuts that shall awake the restless dancer in you with optimal effect.

If tracks like the lushly verbed-out ‘Ephos‘ and ‘Sequences From The Black Basement‘ perhaps best define the track collection’s overall headspace, merging Flug’s trademark melodic shine with further obliterating rhythms that are sure to lay absolute waste in their wake, others like ‘Mars’ and ‘Hyperventilation’ go straight for the jugular with their deadly mix of paced-up martial rhythmics and elliptical grooves gone amok. Just as easy steering the focus into further leftfield-friendly horizons, like on the droney ‘Ratio’, via the freaky acid-popping of ‘Box In A Box’ and ambitious width of scope of ‘A Different Choice’, Lopez delivers something of a life-affirming message with this choice selection of club-oriented delicacies; drawing as much inspiration and energy from the dancefloors Flug got to become intimate with, as he intends to reflect such inspirational forces and energies across the rooms.

A1 – Intro
A2 – Ephos
A3 – Mars
B1 – A Different Choice
B2 – Hyperventilation
C1 – Working Out
C2 – No Return
C3 – Overdose
D1 – Sequences From The Black Basement
D2 – Box In A Box
D3 – Ratio

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CAT#: QRZ LP001
Label: Quartz Rec
Format: 2×12” / Digital