9MS — Lunch (lp)

Munich's machine enthusiasts 9ms return to Squama with their third album 'Lunch'. More heterogenic than its predecessors, the album incorporates Dub-infused IDM, cinematic slow jams and off-kilter drum workouts giving the daring DJ plenty of material to treat dancefloors and listening rooms alike. On their previous albums Pleats (2021) and II (2023) Florian König and Simon Popp mapped out the musical symbiosis between man and machine, using motion sensors to translate their bodies' movement while playing drums into sound. On Lunch the conceptual centerpiece is the pendulum. Neither man, nor machine, its steady movement is converted into analog voltage with what's called a gyroscope, allowing it to trigger and control any parameter in the duo's setup. The album was conceived over the course of a year in weekly morning sessions that had to be wrapped up by lunch due to family obligations. The temporal limits, as paradoxically is often the case, turned out to be quite liberating and resulted in a more playful and fearless process. "We worked pretty efficiently, but since there was no deadline for the album to be finished, the whole process felt very light". The duo also freed themselves from the limitations of having a recording setup that's reproducible for touring. "We didn't think about the live aspect at all this time." So for every session they would choose from a wide array of instruments and machines, an abundance that has inspired the record's artwork, overflowing with words from the list of gear used on the record. Sonically, 9ms keep on forging their own niche with thick, compressed drums set against wide stereo-processed soundscapes and a genuine curiosity that's pleasantly contagious.