After releasing his debut album ‘Love Is Hell’ on ANTIME in 2014, rising techno name ˆL_ now returns with a more dance floor-orientated 12” on the Berlin-based imprint.
From the slamming 90s-style Techno belter ‘She Only Loves Me Because She Doesn’t Live With Me’ to the eerie Techno/House hybrid ‘I’m Richard Clayderman’ and the hard-hitting break beats on ‘Phil Spector’ or ‘Locked-In Syndrome’, the allusions to heyday 2-Step on the EP’s closer ‘Too Weird To Live Too High To Die’, and last but not least the uncanny title track: ˆL_’s sample-heavy aesthetics are as distinctive as they are cohesive.
While ‘Love Is Hell’ reflected an emotional low point for Luis Fernando, ‘The Outsider’ was informed mainly by nihilism, expressing both Fernando’s disgust with religion and the deeply rooted social inequalities which came with it.
The underlying topic forms the narrative of ‘The Outsider’ which knits the already consistent EP even more tightly together and is expressed by no other than the late David Foster Wallace. While the brief excerpt from Wallace’ ground-breaking speech ‘This Is Water’ is literally outspoken about the EP’s concept, other tracks also hint at the underlying theme of social and personal alienation by referring to famous misfits like Phil Spector and Richard Clayderman.
Watch the video below and grab your copy on vinyl or digital.