BTB - Sysex
[Boltfish]

BTB is the alias of solo musician Franco Colombo, who is currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Having been around a few years now (his debut for Fuga Records came out in 2001), Colombo has fine-tuned his mix of electronica styles into a fairly unique hybrid.

BTB crafts his music using harsh broken beats and rough glitchy sounds, yet he manages to stay fairly upbeat and fun most of the time, thanks to his playful use of melody. His mix of intense rhythms works surprisingly well against the more tranquil synths.

Vip R sees Colombo using the digital percussion of randomNUMBER and thick, warm basslines. Tykua has a nice loop of cute bouncing synths not too dissimilar to a lot of the Static Caravan artists, while the hip-hop inspired drums and cut-up vocal samples sound as inspired as Tomcats In Tokyo.

Serene sections come courtesy of closer GNC, which is a slow burning ambient number. The swampy production of Retak is a sound experiment fuelled by static crackles and muffled, tumbling stretched kick drum. Interlude Mimomi has the percussion and xylophones of early Minotaur Shock, while the breather Midodi is a brief sound collage of clock chimes.

All in all, a nice mix of different styles and influences makes Sysex one of the most enjoyable electronica EP's this year. Nice one Boltfish.