Scotland’s Acre Recordings dropped their new Femto Tudomány EP last week (short story – it’s good). I wrote the release notes, they went a little like this.

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A deceptively lush drone wells up, announcing the opening moments of the new EP from Acre Recordings co-owner C Mantle.

Femto Tudomány begins with Szimfónia; a track that morphs into electroid tentacles, building a bleak and otherwordly sphere of sonics. And not without a touch of the orchestral about it; setting the scene for Mantle’s subsequent 5 pieces.

Névtelen has fantastically sharp hats built upon Mantle’s fractured beat work and glitch. His Déli Hal Csillagkép comes complete with rhythmic stutters, grumbles and Autechrian rasps of utterance. The EP’s title track Femto Tudomány starts strangely sedate and restrained. Biding it’s time before fanning out to surround you. Performing, we imagine, a warped and maniacal dance. All the time, grinning.

Mantle has such a talent with these alien like sounds – melding and butchering them into his own devious method of programming and sequencing. Shards of sound throb, slice and ultimately thrust his work forward, dragging layers of grind and electronic fuzz along for the ride, whether they’re complicit or not. It’s a rich aural experience that builds on the muscular techno of his 2012 EP Techne/Physis into something all and of itself.

Sharp sonics from an underrated artist.