Objekt was a welcome find last year- with select white label self-releases and remixes for SBTRKT and Radiohead, the Berlin based producer rolled in like a breath of minty-fresh air amongst the heavily house-influenced UK bass/dubstep/whatever scene.
His excitingly tight productions neatly dance between the more experimental planes of both dubstep and techno realms, well informed by both and subsequently allowing the transition from near-unknown to becoming the newest member of the Hessle Audio family all pretty much within a year. While this release was expected to be the third in his series of white label presses, the Hessle camp fittingly put it out on their own imprint- not surprising considering the A-side’s feature in the Rinse 16 CD mixed by selector supremo Ben UFO last summer that immediately spawned straight up Youtube rips from the offset. The hype surrounding Objekt is definitely one that is warranted.

Objekt aka TJ Hertz works as a programmer at Native Instruments (home to Traktor amongst other software) which goes to explain the high quality of his production skill that he shows off creatively in ‘Cactus’.
The low-slung track is textured with subtle reverse ‘swishes’ here and woodblock ‘taps’ there, placed strategically amongst the freshest hi-hats and pulsating schizophrenic intensity that builds up to a killer metallic drop leaving your feet and head to take off with a mind of their own. It’s like he’s a frequency warrior, a stalwart supporter of the low-end, accumulating them all to release purely for the dance; he’s already professed that his tracks are precisely engineered for the DJ to play out on a fat soundsystem and Cactus is his latest prime example of this. Having heard French Fries drop it last year it was clear that Objekt’s technical production wizardry transcends earphones and laptop speakers like it was silly even considering- you only have to feel the rattling subs to witness this for real.

The flip ‘Porcupine’ is bathed in a more rigid, undeviating drum pattern but is no less effective, upping the tempo to the 130 region with clear hints of a Berlin-esque industrial techno-infused aesthetic. It does more than well enough to veer it away from being repetitive to solidifying it as a dancefloor wrecker by sprinkling it with penetrating hi hats interspersed with expert sampling of mad computer bleeps and wavering deep, dark synths.

Both tracks employ an impressive percussive range and expertise that is shared by many of his beatsmith peers on Hessle Audio’s back catalogue including Untold, Joe and Pearson Sound making the release hugely difficult to ignore. With even Four Tet backing him (quoted saying it’s “so fucking incredible” on the ol’ Twittermachine) it’s hard even if you wanted to. To reiterate- these tracks are meant to give your fresh new shoes a work out.