Ben Pest’s Lacquer of Empathy EP is a brisk, hardware-minded set from the Bristol producer, released by Co-Accused. Pest has taken this strain of electro and techno to the label’s Glasgow parties, as well as Tresor and Glastonbury, and the music has the directness of someone who knows exactly what a club system needs. D-Transfer opens with quick machine funk, its programmed rhythm pushing forward without much spare space. Mam Assid follows with a tougher acid techno pulse, all pressure and repetition.
The B side turns stranger. Shruthi EB builds and rebuilds around distorted synths before settling into a relentless groove, while The Glutch runs a mechanical melody over a tightly locked beat. That track first appeared digitally on Pest’s own label and now gets a vinyl pressing here. A Rolling Edit of Shruthi EB closes the digital version. Pest wrote, produced and mastered the EP himself, with the vinyl cut by Seabass and artwork from Salvador Harris. Co-Accused offers it as a paid release on vinyl and in several digital formats, which makes sense for anyone after hard, rave-touched electro, acid or techno with enough texture to keep the machines from feeling anonymous.
