On the back of brick-solid releases across L.I.E.S., and Willie Burns‘ label W.T. Records, Florian Kupfer has swiftly become a serious mainstay in the world of screwball techno and (ahem) outsider house. His tracks are always tough as nails, but there’s an eerie magic that hangs in between their mechanic drive. His 2013 insta-classic “Feelin’” was such a devastating Trojan Horse for that reason, weaving melancholy into peak-time dancefloors with subtle flair.

Gladly, the Wiesbaden-based wunderkind is back. Kupfer resurfaces this time for Technicolour (Ninja Tune‘s singles label) with Explora — and it’s his most menacing yet. The light gloom of his L.I.E.S. work has been subsumed by a grinding mechanical growl. Amongst the set, lead and title-track “Explora (Slave)” is its most thorough workout, opening with the snarl of a twisted humanoid. ‘Explore your fantasy’ it its broken mantra, crunching from the distorted Tanoy of a dystopian dancefloor. The track builds, cracks and swells across its lifespan, sputtering out at the 10m mark into quiet reflection. It’s dark, crunching – and really quite beautiful – chaos.