Transfesa EP - Bovill

Transfesa EP

Bovill
Meanwhile… Records.

SCQ Rating: 80%

Bovill, who co-runs Meanwhile… Records, has the reputation of being a perfectionist. Releasing only the most pertinent compositions in the occasional EP – on a label, keep in mind, that is far from prolific – his work has taken a nearly mythological stance which fans eagerly devour and savour. With Transfesa EP, his second solo offering, the artist maintains a strict serving of four sparkling minimal techno that won’t argue any claims of perfectionism.

As someone who stepped into Detroit techno with Morgan Geist’s early rave-ups, it’s at once exciting and disbelieving to admit that Transfesa EP pretty much perfects the sub-genre. The title track announces itself like a glimmering metropolitan expressway, spiking echoed keys over deceptively sparse beats and eased by a distant bed of ambience. It’s a recipe that pervades this four-tracker, occasionally shifting focus from club bouncing (on the unwavering ‘Slinky’) to after-hour haze with ‘Trescore’, which, with its stretched synth and 4/4 beat, is reminiscent of Four Tet’s Ringer EP. And matching Bovill’s heady beats to atmospheres best comparable to those found on Junior Boys’ Last Exit, it’s frustrating to know that Transfesa EP will likely remain underground, cast off by indie-followers as too techno or, at surface level, synonymous with techno stereotypes.

On second thought, scratch that… and cherish this latest effort by Bovill with all the sanctity you uphold to pristine house music. Whether it receives its due recognition or not, Transfesa EP is utterly futurist; sterile and meticulous, it doesn’t try to evolve minimal techno so much as it articulates – without any filler, pretentiousness or flaws – what minimal techno sounds like at its absolute, perfectionist best.