Baseck hails from Los Angeles, growing up in the utopian metropolis’ legendary 90’s rave scene. Permanent sunshine and Hollywood glamour seem alien to Berlin’s cold, transgressive ethos, but the last year saw horrific wildfires raging along LA’s fringes. There’s trouble in paradise – there always has been – and those for whom this darkness is no stranger have created a vibrant underground techno and industrial scene in warehouses hidden in the endless sprawl.

There’s a cyberpunk, cyborg element when it comes to interfacing with music machines, and Baseck not only utilizes an alchemic set of hardware, he helps design the hardware. Few releases of his own exist despite years of performing complex, live-programmed sets – albeit not so surprising for someone who spent much of this time in the breakcore scene. Still, there’s countless techno tracks that incorporate presets he’s crafted, on machines he co-engineered. With the 5 track “ENERGY MORPH” EP, Baseck finally allows his own circuit-board symphonies to escape the ephemeral.

Even a few seconds in, it’s apparent this is heavy, patch-cable-melting business. Thin hissy snares quickly evolve into BIG ACID. From here, the EP takes you into brutally ecstatic classic electro, techno and EBM territory that feels both mechanical and alive. Like the title, everything in “ENERGY MORPH” is moving, shifting, evolving – and the qualitative difference is palpable when one can hear the producer and the machines engage in real-time. The tracks here aren’t “DJ tools,” nor are they “weapons” – they are wildcards. The true craftsmanship, however, reveals itself by the fact these are wildcards without the usual risk. The EP slams front to back, every track dancefloor ready, but there’s a continuous feeling of improvisation and surprise, Baseck’s turntablist ethos applied to silicon instead of vinyl. This unpredictability is apt for a paradise at constant risk of destruction, but Baseck’s warehouse floor remains eternally banging.