First you hear the rave rumbling from a distance, perhaps even in a backyard, before the dilapidated but heavy basement door is pushed open and you descend into a dark basement where the antithesis of commercial clubbing takes place. Schematically, bodies are thrown back and forth in the darkness, a meagre lamp illuminates the DJ’s decks and that’s all the light there is. Anyone who has ever seen a documentary about Berlin after the fall of the Wall knows which keys on the keyboard of mindless clichés still need to be played to create the impression of genuine rave authenticity.
Ben Pest’s »Come To The Yard EP« doesn’t need any of that. Over four tracks, it uses a sledgehammer to transmit dancing mania in a purely acoustical way, completely bereft of any of the sailor’s yarn from the old guard. It begins with the opening title track, which continues with the above scenario with a suspenseful intro and then plunges into the cold and smokey darkness of Bristol. That’s where Ben Pest is based, not Berlin. The overwhelming power that his tracks breathe is the power of the drumming, let’s not kid ourselves. It is the sudden and yet inevitable use of silence that is so captivating, even in the electro grid (»Experting Computers«) or the hardcore grind (»Think Again«). That’s probably what reviews mean when they talk about well-crafted EPs.
No Future EP
