Keeping the flag raised for sampladelic techno the way it used to be made in the late '90s and early 2000s (especially helpful for anyone still waiting on that second
Avalanches LP),
Luke Vibert's
Wagon Christ project returned on
Toomorrow. Listeners curious about potential detours through indie folk or British neo-soul obviously haven't been paying attention for the past two decades;
Vibert has a script with his
Wagon Christ records, and he sticks with it here. Beginning with an ace double-shot of sampladelic madness ("Introfunktion" and the title track),
Vibert has many of the usual tricks up his sleeve: a storm of acid techno for "Manalyze This!," a loose-limbed and funky midtempo jaunt on "Ain't He Heavy, He's My Brother," and plentiful other sounds cooked up in his long-running music lab. This is his third
Wagon Christ LP for Ninja Tune (although the first two were seven and ten years earlier, respectively), and for older fans, hearing all these hallmarks of
Vibert's production technique yet again might make for snoozy listening when compared to his classic Throbbing Pouch (especially when the record gets progressively less lively as it goes along). Still, it's important to recognize that this nicely outpaces the other sampladelic electronica being produced in the 2010s. ~ John Bush