STL - SIGHTED (The Drive Of Life) - Something

Stephan Laubner is a productive sort. It's not long since he delivered the impressive At Disconnected Moments full-length for Smallville - or, for that matter, a pair of impressive 12" singles for Lick My Deck and Echochord - but he continues to churn out the hits. This expansive EP for his own Something imprint touches on many of his usual themes, casually flitting between spooky ambience ("LSS Recording"), hazy dub techno ("Intergalactic Quannum Web"), and curiously imaginative, off-kilter deep house (the woozy chug, humid melodies and dub techno textures of stand-out "Monkey Island"). He's also included an impressive trio of loops for DJs to play with, which veer from manic ghetto-glitch ("Loop 1"), to Casio-ware techno ("Loop 3"), via blazed hip-hop ("Loop 2").