The Complicator by Max Gardner (remix by Truncate)
Peer interrupts your regularly scheduled programming to deliver a record purpose-built for the peak hour. The Complicator EP by label boss Max Gardner stands out as one of the most driving entries on the Bay Area record label’s rapidly unfolding discography.
The title track sets the tone for the rest of the effort, pairing suspenseful plucks with a polyrhythmic riser loop. Tension reaches a fever pitch as a call and response between claps and hi-hats stakes its claim at the top of the dynamic range. Until its final minute, “The Complicator” only goes up.
Truncate was gracious enough to reimagine the title track as a maximalist hardgroove cut. Syncopated percussion, dusty synths, and lucid atmospheres differentiate his remix from the source material, adding a human warmth to its cold and mechanical musings.
“The Agitator” rounds out the EP, living up to its title and then some. A reverb-soaked arpeggio materializes from behind a chorus of alien chirps, its shape more acutely defined during a section in which the kickdrums briefly vanish from the arrangement. Foreboding howls shortly after the halfway mark make the final bars of the record fade away like a death rattle.
Over the course of its catalog, Peer has never shied away from exploring the derelict fringes of underground music. Max Gardner’s Complicator EP is no exception. The label’s experimental philosophy finds a new form as three pieces of functional dance music in this latest endeavor.
Tracklist
| 1. | The Complicator | 5:10 |
| 2. | The Complicator (Truncate remix) | 5:23 |
| 3. | The Agitator | 5:40 |
Credits
Written and Produced by Max Gardner
Remix by Truncate
Mastering by Matt Salamone
Artwork by Moe Espinosa
Description by John Cameron
