Hardware High Wire: Heidi Sabertooth and With the Void

UFO Inc has been gradually drifting out of its founder’s shadow like all good labels should and follows up a brilliant pair of V/A releases with this EP from Heidi Sabertooth.

With The Void is a beat-lover’s dream with a flair for spontaneity. The tracks are put together how they would be in a live PA: one layer atop another, synced up tight as a drum starting with the percussion and a prayer spoken in MIDI. “Dark Adaptation” leads off and lights the fuse: if you ever had a pleasant moment of delirium you’re going to feel flashbacks on this. That big booming clap is the point where it goes OFF. “High Wire” is probably as good an overall description of this as any: each track takes the chance that it can lose cohesion and fall apart, fall out of time or fail as the temperamental hardware that powers Sabertooth’s music is prone to do. But when it works, it’s magic: the track ends with an analog growl that feels as much of an accident of simultaneous voices bouncing off each other in the transistor’s soul than anything deliberate. These are tracks out of time which means they are always in fashion.

Heidi Sabertooth: With The Void / UFO Inc. (February 2020/12″ Vinyl/Digital)
1. Heidi Sabertooth: Dark Adaptation (08:00)
2. Heidi Sabertooth: High Wire (06:11)
3. Heidi Sabertooth: An Eye Is My Why (07:06)
4. Heidi Sabertooth: Ur Pushin It (07:26)

FUTURE/CLASSICAL: This was originally published in 5 Mag issue 180 featuring Kate Simko, Rudosa, DJ Emmaculate, Microdot & more. Help support 5 Mag by becoming a member for just $1 per issue.