Artifact - Cologne Tracks

Artifact released a pay-what-you-like album earlier today through upstanding label Local Action. Recorded whilst the Bristolian was in Cologne in 2011/2, the 11 tracks that make up the album (blessed with the no frills title ‘Cologne Tracks’) are mostly at a footwork tempo, and there’s some solid stuff on it: Radioactive Ray is led by a rigid kickdrum whilst everything else around it shuffles and mutates, Only Girl erupts into a conga fest around the halfway mark and the rude Leich. Apparently the tracks are all very personal to Artifact, recorded at a big turning point in his life, but this doesn’t stop them from being anything other than good fun. It’s what you’d expect from Local Action, a label who have put out their fair share of club tracks that remain weird and wonderful without sacrificing danceability.