Branches EP

As core members of the Raster-Noton roster for over two decades, kangding ray—the Berlin duo of Andreas Reihse and Stefan Schneider—have made a name for themselves with austere, sculpted electronics that prize texture over melody. Branches is their first release for Len Faki’s Figure label, and it sees the pair transplant their glacial precision into a tougher, more physical techno setting without compromising a single element of their sound.

Figure has long been a home for functional, floor-focussed techno, and it’s telling that kangding ray’s debut there never feels like a compromise. The EP keeps the duo’s signature dryness—kicks that thud rather than boom, percussion that clicks and rustles at the edges of the mix—whilst nudging everything towards a rolling four-to-the-floor pulse built for a dark room rather than a gallery. Every element is placed with evident care, the reverb kept short and the textures filed down until only the essential remains.

Opening track Doppler Shift sets the tone: a steely kick and a single oscillating tone that bends and slides like a passing signal, gradually joined by granular textures and a bassline that arrives around the three-minute mark to ground the drift. The title track Branches is the EP’s most immediate moment, its crisp, wood-block percussion and muted pads recalling the pair’s earlier Raster-Noton work whilst a taut sub bass keeps the groove locked and moving.

Salt and Iron lives up to its name, all corroded textures and brittle hi-hats over a deceptively simple groove, the metallic shimmer building patiently until the final minute strips the track back to a bare kick. Closer Robust Version Nine is the most overtly club-ready cut here, its swung percussion and warm, lo-fi pad work offering a hint of humanity amid the precision. It’s a fitting end to an EP that proves this move to Figure is no stylistic leap into the unknown—just a meticulous, textural approach redirected towards the dancefloor, and all the better for it.