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Orbiter on LP

There's been an air of hypnagogic mystery surrounding Acid Test's sublabel Avenue 66 from the start. Joey Anderson's oblique, Prince-inspired incantation "Above The Cherry Moon" (2013) set the tone for a label that's sound that has found beauty in the furthest recesses of the dancefloor, in the murkiest decay of kick drums and rave stabs. Fitting then, that the first album on the imprint comes from Trux, an artist who has chosen to reveal nearly nothing about themselves. Following a cult classic mini-LP for Office Recordings (2016), Orbiter bears out the anonymous producer as a master of liminal, conceptual dance music. Orbiter's ten tracks have a vaporous, shape-shifting quality, threatening to topple over into full-on kick drum bliss or vanish into ambience. Opener, "With It", moves from heady ambient rush to skeletal piano, while "Blinko" and "Roy's Garage" spell out a hazy memoriam for the UK continuum. Forlorn pianos ring out amongst the field recordings, excitable toms, and jungle bass all softened in the enveloping gauze. Orbiter positions Trux as an unknown auteur who puts evocative world of tone and echo into dizzying motion, content to watch from the wings.