Lawrence - Divided

Recording info

EOn the Divided 12, Hamburgs Peter Kersten (aka Lawrence) offers up three gorgeous shades of dance music, a trio of tracks exploring the prolific producers love of ambience and subtle rhythmic play. Divided is a classic, a congas-and-trash-cans gallop through melancholy fields of synthesizer. Rhythms act as melodies, melodies masquerade as rhythms, and the tracks subtle, cymbal-led climax hits harder than any siren. Forever Anna seems to chart a relationship with the titular love object. Over the course of six and a half minutes, the main theme - a tentative sequence of melodic synth stabs - goes through a series of rhythmic episodes, from its initial ecstatic pop 'n thwock (the initial flutter?), to a spacey, half-time chug (the long, sweet middle?), to a drifting ambient fake-out (the inevitable conclusion?) and one more brief fling with rhythm (a hint at rebirth?). In the end, of course, all that remains is the theme. Finally, Blow Up pairs a horizon-scanning beat to some genuinely soul-stirring chord changes, which seem to periodically melt into woozy dissonance and then ooze back into shape again. Brief and direct, the record-closing track has a cinematic lilt that belies Lawrences belief in the oft-underappreciated power of a good melody in techno.