Having released a number of EPs on Border Community and, now defunct, Output labels, Honeycomb EP, Abbott's first release this year, seems to have been produced with a sense of progression and diversity in mind.
Serving up the nearest thing to a clear-cut tech track on the EP, first track, Honeycomb, is a dark pulsating slab of trippy techno that thumps along with a raft of warped percussive hooks that build to an analogue-perfect conclusion. Sure to draw unfair comparisons with the material of Nathan Fake, this is a progression of the established 'Border' sound and stamped with Abbott’s identifiable flourishes.
One Hundred And Thirteen, the second track, is at first a looser, mellower affair. Things become moody as drums that kick in at the one-minute mark, yet its the unnecessary grating feedback, that pushes the track further leftfield than already established, occasionally sounding intentionally obtuse.
Present is the most danceable and has the most crossover potential, with its over-active 8-bit chirps injecting a new lease of life into the frequently tired sounding ‘retro-fx’ scene. With a strange but joyous combination of various analogue synth hooks, the track bombs along with the intensity of an electro hit, but with the sensibilities of a pent-up krautrock number.
Signing off with a swan-song of noise, Abbott concludes what feels like a glimpse of things to come. Like many experimental EPs, the record’s purpose at times feels lost somewhere between the DJ booth and the after-party. Yet, if only one achievement is to be noted, it is Abbott’s artistic integrity and vision, hinting towards what should be a musically provocative future amongst the high credentials of the Border Community pasty poster boys.