Making the jump from DJ to producer during the last four years, French pseudo-minimal electro enthusiast Bastien Grine has ventured away from his previous label Scandium for a release on Kompakt’s new K2 off-shoot. K2 hasn’t received nearly as much acclaim as Kompakt’s other sub-labels, but if audioscrobblers and blogs are any indication, Grine may help change all of that. Inciting a particularly (Get) Physical take on electro, the titular a-side of “Where R U” starts its engine with a hypnotic bass line before taking an off-ramp to a rave where the dancers are dirty and low to the ground. “Pastel,” on the flip side is like a stuttering bull running into a thick wall of bass triplets and being pounded into the ground by the beat. Shying away from the overdriven sounds of “Where R U,” the third and final track, “828,” presents a stark approach to electro that could maybe only be improved by a certain Chilean dropping his super sexy vocals on a remix. But by the end, Bastien has at least made this much clear: Where U R is somewhere near a rave, a big fucking rave.

K2 / 007
[Cameron Octigan]