When 100% Silk, or their parent label Not Not Fun, puts out a new record with a companion cassette, you know that’s being added to your shopping cart. Whether it’s the humid, languorous synths of X.Y.R., the meditative flute workouts of Les Halles, or the late night dance grooves of Jupiter Jax, the companion tape allows the artist’s vision to sprawl, and we’re all the better for it.
The latest treatment of this cross format release is the new 12-inch and tape from The Cyclist, whose “tape throb” aesthetic has graced listeners’ ears the better part of the past seven years. The 12-inch has been covered, and so we’re here to fry your ear drums with “Cologne Halls,” taken off the Cyclist’s Beat at the Heart of the City cassette.
“Cologne Halls” is a little slower and more atmospheric than the usual Cyclist material, but the tune, like the rest of Beat, goes deeper for a sound that resonates to those familiar with the project, but comes up with an intoxicating blend of dance, dub, and that patented “throb” heard across Andrew Morrison’s catalog. Zone out to “Cologne Halls” below, and be ready for Beat at the Heart of the City, along with the Alabaster Thrones 12-inch, which will be available from 100% Silk April 6.