Orac ist mal wieder sehr weit draussen und veröffentlich hier das sehr unheimliche Debut von Jon McMillion, der es schafft mit jedem Sound so zu klingen, als hätte er ihn irgendwie aus einem Universum geerbt, das mit unserem nur Banalitäten gemeinsam hat. Bis auf den Titeltrack sehr schräge Tracks, dessen digitale Effekte einen stellenweise an eine neue Form von Klassik denken lassen. Das smoothere “Inner Floor” zeigt einem aber auch, dass so ein Sound auf dem Dancefloor durchaus sehr gut funktionieren kann, wenn man nur ein klein wenig nahbarer wird. Abenteuerlich und etwas gewagt, aber durch und durch spannend.
Orac is again very far afield and publishes here the very uncanny debut of Jon McMillion. It’s made with each noise sounding like it was somehow inherited from another universe which has nothing in common with ours but simple banalities. Up to the title track very skewed tracks, whose digital effects in parts let us imagine a new kind of Classical. The smoother “Inner Floor” shows one that in addition, such a sound can work quite well on the Dancefloor if one just comes in a bit closer. Adventurous and somewhat risky, but thoroughly exciting.
–bleed, de:bug
Seattle’s Jon McMillion sculpts his own particular brand of Unclassified Computer Funk on the 12-inch vinyl debut Inner Floor, the second in Orac’s ‘Black and White’ series. Dance music it is, at least nominally, but pushed to such an abstract degree it’s almost silly to label it as such. The four cuts here are more like lab experiments, what a conventional electronic dance track might sound like after being shattered into fragments and its innards radically modified before re-assembly; the tunes aren’t conventionally melodic but instead highlight strands of microscopic fragments that cohere into cumulating clusters. McMillion drapes rich, shape-shifting fields of steely machine noise over buoyant pulses of skeletal beats and grooving bass lines, his cyborg material appearing to retain a mere fading memory of its minimal techno roots.
In the title cut, McMillion builds crisp, grooving pulses of pinprick microfunk from tiny ripples, crackles, whirrs, and static while angular tendrils of guitar and wiry flutter slither over a bumping, bass-driven jack in “Make it Worms.” By the time syllabic fragments, rumbling tones, and clatter repeatedly dart over the surface of the seasick “Duke of Earl,” it’s obvious that McMillion’s music is definitely ‘new,’ a colder and hazier techno mutation rising from the ashes of its more straightforward ancestors.
–Ron Schepper, Textura
Seattle’s Jon McMillion brews up a deep, crispy and textural roundup of cuts for the ever-intriguing Orac label. It’s always great to hear another stateside producer making proper minimal music and Mr. McMillion certainly fits the bill. The four tracks featured herein abound with snappy clicks, metallic blips and fuzzy melodic bits—not to mention hefty helpings of bumpy bass. Falling somewhere between dB and Farben, this is an essential piece for those in the know.
–Dean DeCosta, BPM
