[Blueprint]

The mnml explosion wasn’t particularly kind to hard techno. As the cleaner, reduced ethos of the music proved more popular the harder geared sound fell out of favor for a while, prompting certain labels to go into hibernation or dissolve completely. The pendulum has certainly swung back the other way of late and one of the stalwart labels of hard techno, James Ruskin’s Blueprint re-emerged this year after a good five years of dormancy. Paul Mac, a vanguard of techno for nearly fifteen years, didn’t suffer the same fate as some of the record labels, but for the past couple of years his releases have almost exclusively been limited to digital format. His latest excursion under the new moniker of Valmay on Blueprint strikes another win for the label this year and finds Paul Mac in top form.

“Distrust” is the sort of formula-rich material Mac has been churning out in his sleep for years. It’s not trying anything fancy with its blunted, sullen chords and Synewave-style percussion but within that it is a truly effective piece of dance floor techno. “Old Dog” goes further towards upping the momentum of the EP with a call and response style of bass and melody combination writ against brash, sloppy hi-hats and another rolling, New York techno style groove that will be familiar territory for fans of old Solid Groove and Proper records.
The title cut works its magic on a slightly different tip with much of the energy wrought through heavy, muted percussion, the melody arriving by degrees with open ended chord stabs placed at every second bar. Mac’s arrangements go a long way to showing how his own productions and his mid 90’s peers have helped shape the popular sounds of harder techno today and this EP highlights just how timeless and future forward they have always been.