Que

Liar's second offering in the cycle just recently initiated by "Mas" is perhaps his heaviest release to date. An indiscriminate love letter to all iterations of rave in the past 40 years, "Que" effortlessly reunites heretofore estranged elements of hardcore, via Liar's blissfully disturbed vision of future bass music.

Opener "Assamite" is a dark, brooding, dizzyingly calculated exercise in techno unshackled from the trappings of four-to-the-floor. Spartan and reductionist, it dispenses with melody, instead creating an immersive sonic backdrop for the rapid-fire percussion and billowing bassline. As the incessant industrial impacts begin to dictate your breathing and the ghostly choirs provide a chilling lull, a keyword starts being whispered to you, fully driving home the dystopian opiate aesthetic.

"Tzimisce" takes a page from the millenial 'nu-skool breaks' book, and employs multiple 90s breakbeat hardcore approaches, all the while keeping it resolutely 2013. The opening sample chants "they entwine", and upon first listen this becomes seemingly self-referential – the abberant reece coils around the beat with impunity, literally tying everything together with the gusto of a bondage enthusiast or a boa constrictor.

On the flipside, "Toreador" is brief, minimalist, and jocular. Blending heavyweight house and cyber-tastic late-80s electro, it revolves around a pugilistic bassline and corroded Eddie Griffin soundbite.

Closer "Lasombra" wraps things up in an action B-movie kind of way – with urgency and bombast. The most 4/4 of the four, it is indebted to neuro-house natives such as Noisia or The Proxy, yet departs from their MO via a full complement of Liar's trademark quirks. Metallic rave piano stabs ramp up the pressure, junglist easter eggs line every nook & cranny, sax solos take the edge off, and a chipmunked diva both lionizes and sums up the aim of this EP...

...Which is to get your body moving along with your most questionable thoughts.