Plaid's techno is some of the most thoughtful out there, and the way
the British pair deliver it is often just as interesting. Take
Ed Handley and Andy Turner's latest album, Polymer, which came with its
own interactive web environment and encouraged us to think about the
role artificial substances play in our lives. Musically it was
a harder-edged mix of broken techno and heavy snares, but still offered
the sort of technicality and emotion that has always stood the Warp
duo apart.
In their mix for us they put all their many years of know-how into a
timeless selection of tense and engaging electronic sounds. It touches
on far-gazing and futuristic techno, melancholic ambient passages and
onto scintillatingly melodic IDM and twisted jungle. It's a real
rollercoaster from two jedis of the scene.