Peach
Fortune Two

Earlier in the decade, Alexander Skancke released a swathe of admired singles on NeoStrictly, Eskimo Recordings and Shadow Hide You, before promptly vanishing from view. "Jungle Japes" sees the Norwegian return to action after three long years via a heavy and mind altering four-tracker that we believe to be his strongest work to date.

Shine Grooves (Hanagasumi, ФАКТУРА) is a specialist in live and experimental electronic music, blending software and hardware in his studio in Yekaterinburg, Russia. On this sophomore full-length he cultivates an otherworldly Space Garden on a distant planet, populated by alien organisms that move to their own extraterrestrial groove. Dawn breaks and the garden slowly comes to life on ambient opener ‘Morning Mood’, setting a promising tone for the day ahead. A kick shuffles in to work on the dubby ‘Tribal Acoustic’, which builds and builds before leading us into the industrious bounce of ‘Japan Sequencer’. This latter, first optimistic and later frenetic, ends the A-side’s warm-up and primes us for action on the B. ‘Tool’ is self-explanatory, a refined, stripped-down dub techno weapon honed for an afternoon’s hard work. After that exertion, ‘Evening Radio’ is the perfect cool-down, its delicately skittering percussion contrasting with sweet, improvised synth melodies. Finally, the ambient ‘Night Reverberation Jam’ is the sound of darkness falling, our garden’s lifeforms settling down to rest before the cycle begins afresh.