Hard Islands

'Hard Islands' is the assured and confident new installment from 25 year old Nathan Fake, the Norfolk born and bred precocious young heir to the UK electronica throne who has kept fans of fuzzy-edged synths and maximal acidic techno beats alike guessing ever since his debut release at the tender age of 19. A six track long serious contender in the loudness wars, 'Hard Islands' sets up camp in that fuzzy middle ground between mini-album and EP that so many of our alt-dance heroes are choosing to occupy in this post-physical format era, where each track in the complementary collection can also stand alone as a hedonist's anthem in its own right. Easily as melodic and musically ambitious as any of his previous works, the 'Hard Islands' selection nonetheless edges towards the tougher end of electronica that is the usual domain of Warp and Rephlex stalwarts like Clark and Aphex Twin, whilst all the time never losing sight of that acute awareness of what will work on the dancefloor that had already enabled young Mr Fake to tick off many of the world's best clubs on his touring itinerary by the time he had reached his mid-twenties. “Playing live a lot over the last couple of years has had a profound influence on the way I make music now,” says Nathan of his latest offering, and the unique loose-feeling, dynamic and finely-tuned sound that we hear on 'Hard Islands' is the product of that direct experience on the dancefloors of Europe. The tracks that make up this EP were absorbed into Nathan's club set at an early stage, where they were able to gradually evolve in the context of his live performance before finally being pinned down to this refined fixed recorded form for their official release. The hour long unstoppable industrial assault of the Nathan Fake laptop live show is a much more intense and visual experience than one has traditionally come to expect from the genre, and although recent support slots for Squarepusher and Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid