Starting slowly, the opening track to Yard’s “Bloom,” “Numba,” soon gets up to a gallop, incorporating Laurie Anderson, a yawning synth bass undercurrent, and Artificial Intelligence gobules of melody thrown in for good measure. The track is kind of a mess, but it’s an endearing mess that evokes the early days of IDM well, and it certainly helps the punishing acid tracks “Bloody Mary” and “Mitten” to go down a bit easier. The highlight on this schizophrenic 12” is “Adam Johnson Haunting Neal’s Yard Remix” which comes on the B-side. It’s like “Numba” in many ways, but shears off the rough edges and cuts it all down to essential elements, revealing a sleek Gap-wearing version of “Numba”’s thrift-store charm. What can I say? I’m a sell-out. Anyway, a nice entry into this M3rck offshoot label’s catalogue.

Narita / NRT05
[Todd Burns]