So assured, strong yet supple… Okay, enough of the man-crush on someone who hasn’t always demonstrated restraint on wax. Carsten Aermes glides through the still waters and enigmatic underbellies of 2-step-into-dubstep, proving that the scene of emotional masculinity hasn’t yet been mined for all its worth. Arrowing down to depths that the naked ear cannot make out, Phon.O can lift you, with ‘Slavemode’ and its trance tipped wings and ‘Hope Light’ applying grievously bodily calm, and he can leave you sleeping in a concrete Kimono through ‘Die Maschinistin’ and ‘Abaw723’, whose very names look like they’re out for revenge, and the straight banger ‘Mosquitoes’. Every which way…swoon.
8/10
Words by MATT OLIVER