T++ - Wireless

A Cropped
B Anyi
C Voices No Bodies
D Dig

Throughout the '90s, Torsten Profrock utilised an array of different pseudonyms to showcase his dubby techno stylings and other more abstract experiments, but recently the producer has focused his efforts solely on developing the T++ sound, conjuring up a catalogue of music that owes as much to the breakbeats of classic jungle as it does Teutonic techno.

The arrival of Wireless, however, signals the end of Profrock's work under the T++ name. It's a fitting send-off. The four tracks that feature on this double pack again serve to highlight Profrock's penchant for rolling grooves that envelop the listener in a murky hyper-kinetic atmosphere. This time around the material has a slightly different aesthetic due to the samples of East African vocals and ndingidi—a single-stringed fiddle-esque instrument—which were taken from EMI's vast historical archive of international music that Honest Jon's have access to, and are using to compile various themed collections. Whereas previous T++ tracks reveled in their mechanized maelstrom, this gives the Wireless material more of a human touch—albeit a detached and rather spooky one.

"Cropped" bursts straight out of the tracks with 2-steppy snap-claps and a cyclical junglist bassline, with bursts of uneasy chanting and smothering sub-bass percolating through the relentless rhythm, while "Anwi" goes for a more awkward—but just as satisfying—undulating groove, with downright nasty bass tones and manipulated ndingidi providing the necessary tension. "Voices No Bodies" relies more on reverberated and delayed effects to colour its stepping technoid percussion, providing a slow moving melodic counterpoint to the frenetic drums and looped ndingidi, and closing cut "Dig" provides what is probably Wireless' most dubstep-compatible selection, its shuffling tribalism bringing to mind the more tribal work of Ramadanman.

It may be sad to see the latest chapter in Torsten Profrock's production career come to an end, but it's safe to say that he's retired T++ on a high, leaving behind a body of work that should be revisited by electronic music aficionados for decades to come. When that moment comes, it's likely that Wireless will be hailed as the finest of his T++ releases: a culmination of his junglist techno experimentation that was hinted at on his Dynamo releases and continued throughout the 21st century. The only question that remains is what he's going to get up to next. I, for one, can't wait to find out...www.residentadvisor.net