[Fine Art Recordings]

Over the last few years, Stuart Li’s Basic Soul Unit project has reliably released no-frills house tunes which, while rarely easy to pigeonhole in any microgenre, are mindful of the sort of solid material DJs need to fill out long sets. Nevertheless, these releases have occasionally been criticized as overly linear and symptomatic of tracky DJing, sentiments that aren’t totally unfounded; until this year, I wouldn’t have bothered recommending any of Li’s material to non-DJs. This is all changing rapidly, however. His Tuff Love EP on Crème Organization and its accompanying remix EP (featuring A Made Up Sound’s reworkings of the EP’s tracks) exhibit a new found interest in melding his house and techno roots with offbeat bass music, an interest furthered on Li’s first release under the Herman alias. Prototype‘s two tracks aren’t exactly home listening, but their dynamism lends a sense of adventure largely absent from the producer’s earlier efforts.

“Prototype” scarcely lets up, a whirling mass of intersecting organ patterns, bass weight, echoing claps and double-time hi-hats. Subtle mistakes remain in the mix; at one point everything awkwardly slows down in that kind of timeless mechanical error, the sound of hardware being pushed to its limits. Rough, punchy, and somewhat off-kilter, it’s a fresh take on a genre that’s often too methodical for its own good. Meanwhile, “April Skies” slowly builds on the melding of tense percussive stutter with a house bass line, breaking down several times to allow new effects to saturate. The breakdowns are always fluid, never awkward, and here Li’s prowess at structuring rolling house tracks shines through. The track is laced with the kind of taut, super bright synths that have appeared on many other techno-meets-dubstep release. Used sparingly, they’re a great sound, but it’s becoming a bit wearisome hearing these very stock melodic elements tied to such forward-thinking rhythms. And coupled with a glum title like “April Skies,” the track verges on cliché. For the most part, though, Herman’s debut doesn’t feel like an exercise in trend-hopping. Rather, it’s a convincing early glimpse at what may be a very fruitful new direction, knocking a substantial — if a bit staid — catalog delightfully off its axis.