Human Space Machine is not the annoying elbow-first lout on the dancefloor, but a Dutch techno act. He would hardly appear on Midgar if his music did not move at the edge of sonic research. Which is to say: the EP Perception Field, too, is rarely conceived only in terms of forward motion, but shows a feel for the fine intermediate tones that machine music makes possible.
Psychedelia, reverb, the wicked word tribalism? The track titled accordingly, »Totem«, sedates despite its comparatively high tempo, with organic noises from inorganic matter, reverberating like that lake from which Donato Dozzy and Neel created a sonic signature for the ages. The opener »The Field« also has a certain speed, but develops the peculiar gait of a feverish test-tube birth under ambient cover.
On »U77«, metallic bell strikes clang relatively clearly above moderate speed, even as one descends further and further down the spiral tower staircase into darkness: Castlevania turned track, with complementary bass entries. »Gallop« hammers away polyrhythmically at maximum speed while lulling with little glockenspiel figures. Tech-house tendencies in a bass-music aesthetic, à la Wisdom Teeth, executed with flair. Conceptually the most successful track on an EP that is many things, but certainly not functional music.
