Techno oddities and outsider bosh from an unpredictable talent.
Since his debut 12″ on Livity Sound in 2014, we’ve been keeping close tabs on the Somerset producer who goes by the needlessly glamorous mononym Bruce.
He’s lived up to his promise with every release, putting his own spin on Bristol’s brawny, percussive style on 12″s for Batu’s Timedance label and Chris Farrell’s Idle Hands, as well teaming up with kindred spirits from beyond the West Country, like Hessle Audio and Hemlock, for further slabs of unclassifiable electronic headfuckery.
Hemlock is home to his latest record, the just-released Before You Sleep, where we meet Bruce in that liminal zone between wake and sleep for three of his most spun-out and avant-leaning tracks yet, led by the impossibly pretty slow-mo surrealism of ‘Before You Sleep’.
But how does he do behind the decks, you ask? We’ve had our hearts set on a Bruce FACT mix for a long while now, and you probably won’t be surprised to hear that he does very well indeed. Kicking off with dreamy minimalism from DJ 2Button, his mix includes gritty techno, skittering IDM and various permutations of outsider bosh from the likes of Untold, Overmono and The Future Sound of London. Naturally there are plenty of exclusives in there too, including Bruce’s own “Magic Massager” mix of Reckonwrong’s ‘The Passions Of Pez’ and Asusu’s remix of Bruce’s ‘I’m Alright Mate’. The perfect way to spend an hour.
Tracklist:
DJ 2Button – ‘Floods Of People’ [Dubplate]
Yard – ‘Void’ [Forthcoming]
Howes – ‘C’ [Dubplate]
Pepe Bradock – ‘Yasuke’ [Atavisme]
Metrist – ‘Pantomimer Tongue’ [Dubplate]
Mosca – ‘This Branch Is Weak’ [Dubplate]
Mutado Pintado – ‘Michelle’ (Acid Arab Feat Shanbehzadeh Ensemble Remix) [Les Disques De La Mort]
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Konstantin Tschechow – ‘Breton Woods’ [Ratlife Records]
The Future Sound Of London – ‘In 8′ [Jumpin’ & Pumpin]
Lurka – ‘Dumbdumb’ [Dubplate]
Speedy J & George Issakidis – ‘Understand What I Am Saying’ [Novamute]
NHK yx Koyxen – ‘L’ [Diagonal]
Decon/Recon #1 – ‘D3-3’ [Noise Manifesto]
Reckonwrong – ‘The Passion Of Pez’ (Bruce’s Magic Massager Mix) [Dubplate]
Bruce – ‘I’m Alright Mate’ (Asusu Remix) [Forthcoming]
JP Buckle – ‘Heavy Soil’ [Rephlex]
Burnt Friedman – ‘1999 Nerfs D’Acier’ [Latency]
Untold – ‘Watton Res’ [Dubplate]
Overmono – ‘HR3’ [Forthcoming]