Another one of those British techno artists who has long been at their craft: Mark Broom is a name that when you see it on a release you know the quality of production is going to be tight, and in all likelihood you’re going to be picking up his latest dancefloor slab.

However, unlike artists who seem to only be able to craft the club weapons, Broom can craft more (as ably shown on the excellent Lightbox LP from his collaborative project with James Ruskin as The Fear Ratio). For me The Fear Ratio sound is some of the best work Ruskin and Broom have ever done and that’s including each of their long solo production careers.

I digress, for this particular piece I want to draw your attention to Broom’s offering for Power Vacuum – a label based out of London who have already caused heads to turn and ears to get further into the pleasure of tinnitus with heavyweight industrial rave aural abuse from EDMX, Invincible Scum and Bintus.

On offer (and on vinyl for those who relish that sort of thing) are three versions of acid enriched warehouse stomp. This ain’t no home listening business. This is 4am sweat box, off your rocker, tripping the light fantastic business.

On the A side you’ve the main cut, the title track – Acid Dik. Being warehouse aimed techno you’ve got dank, hard kick drums, which one minute in are pretty much gabba kicks. Bring in the layers of hi hats and acid stabs and you’ve got a fine piece of DJ weaponry at hand. This ain’t clever but it certainly is big. And that’s exactly what this EP is aiming for. You can’t always be stroking your chin at the post industrial subversive reinvention of the ghost of the abstract. Sometimes you want playful stomp for the inebriated.

On the flip. Two versions. The Beat Mix and the Alarm Rmx. The former adds in a reverb’d tail vox loop, tones down the hard gabba (though these kicks still pack a punch) and sort of smooths out some of the edges compared to the original. The acid stabs are worked into more of an acid line with the ubiquitous cow (rave) bell making a firm appearance.

The Alarm Rmx goes for the straightest feel of the three – those hats leading you in. Underneath, the “alarm”. It’s the groover of the EP. As it develops those kicks get harder and that alarm more pronounced and urgent sounding. Of the three this is probably the most accessible for your techno DJ and club floor. It’s hard but not so hard as to really test everyone. I guess this is the safe option. Whatever that means.

One thing I do want to add, and this is I hope intentional, the artwork is awful. Compared with the artwork on the previous four releases you don’t get the impression they’ve been going for the so bad it’s good thing. They’ve previously taken time over the type, imagery and the like. There’s even an aesthetic and general style connection between the pieces. Up until this one. The artwork for Acid Dik quite literally would have taken less than the time taken for you to read this paragraph.

The thing is it isn’t even so bad it’s good, it’s just somewhere in the middle, which is worse. But hey, the music’s good. And that’s the main thing I guess. Available now – everywhere that stocks it.