Audiopile Review: Aussie producer Cousin finally gets to a long player, or at least the closest he’s come yet, after an incredible string of EPs for shop fave imprints like Mood Hut, NAFF and Nummer. Despite these dalliances abroad, Cousin’s been quietly running his own imprint for years now, Moonshoe, now returning back to the label for his sharpest statement yet. Always a tricky one to define, his releases have consistently cross-pollinated across genre, never adhering to any rigid guidelines or settling into a zone of familiarity, and Wake The Town continues to blur the lines. Perhaps less spritely and more austere than Homespun, his breakthrough EP on Mood Hut that surely won him a handful of new fans, Cousin’s knack for complex, interlocking drums and robust bottom-end ambience are fully flexed here. While his productions have always been busy, somewhat akin to the dense and knotty rhythms of classic IDM, his ability to tap into both the cerebral and hedonistic are what have kept us deep under his spell. IDM this not. With a particular emphasis on groove, Cousin snatches elements of dub, house, techno and even new age, fusing the cogs of varied strands of electronic music into his lush creations, somehow able to fuse a near-mechanistic sound design with a head-spinning fluidity. Cousin continues to capture both the deep headphone listener and the adventurous, loose-limbed dancers out there. Not an easy feat.

***

Back with the debut full length disc on Cousin’s own Moonshoe records. Forgoing EP/LP constraints and sitting simultaneously pretty in both zones.

“Wake The Town” summons 6 spaces of varied pace that step off the un-beaten track. Each movement casts shadows in unseen shapes across its cratered plains, luring you deeper in.

Ethereal harmonics whisper secrets as they float over rolling low end hypnotisms. As it’s told, ebbing and flowing, feeling both intimate and
vast. Sometimes secrets are best left untold, but if you listen up here, that’s not the case.