Nothing subtle here: a nine track album released without much fanfare from a guy that makes techno you wish the mainstage gang with corny DJ names still did. DJ Temporal Lobe and DJ Paralegal Assistant: you can throw away the grainy black-and-white headshots, the abstract art covers and the tracks named after asteroids and astrophysical concepts that just barely mask that they have nothing new to say. Sir Fitzpatrick is unrelenting, and Sick is loaded with the kind of brutal vitality that is never in abundant supply.
Fitzpatrick is at his best with “Do It” and “Nasty Girl Time” – tracks that have a kind of primitive melodiousness stubbornly refusing to be washed away in the relentless rhythmic tidal dynamics. And just like that: bits stuck in my head that you’d never think were “catchy” or “hooks” – they win you over not so much by assimilation or hypnotism as much as systemic overload. They wear you out. They wear you down. Then they take over.
There’s more to it than that, of course. In the dark groove of “Mistic” is the inspiration for an industrial zikr dance; in the drone of “Haunting” and “Sick” a mind that manufactures music from the strangest raw materials. Lester was once one of Relief’s most showcased artists (I think about a half dozen releases from “Tone Control” forward), and these days has roughly the same position on Roman Zawodny’s UKR. We’re seeing something kind of amazing happening here – a renaissance rather late by an artist that is becoming almost the embodiment of Chicago’s ubiquitous raw’az’hell aesthetic.
Out: Beatport.
Published first in 5 Mag Issue #128, featuring Chicago Skyway, the Euro-Disco of Voyage, Getting Started in Vinyl, Ortella, Moppy & more. Become a member of 5 Magazine for First & Full access to everything House Music.
