Bleep

Having already unleashed a stunning LP in 2021 — the excellent 9696 Dream — Sheffield producer/DJ 96 Back swiftly turns in another work of meticulously crafted and all-together protracted club atmospheres. Love Letters, Nine Through Six is pulled from the same beguiling soundworld as its predecessor, ditching straight-forward rhythms for textural hazes and cryptic structures in the way only 96 knows how.

96 Back has always been a creative electronic music historian, a heretical student of 1990s techno, electro and electronic production since his earliest releases on Central Processing Unit, this is his most elusive ode to dancefloor styles to date. The chunky synth bass of ‘Felzin’ summons the steel city spirit of esteemed Warp artists until celestial transmissions of treated vocals (for the first time leading the listener with his own vocals) and snipped flourishes transform the track into a different creature entirely. The ascendent rave sonics of ‘9 To Find 6’, ‘Teach Me Tenderness’ and the gqom-‘em-up Joe Paisan feature ‘Don’t Die’ demand laser light show treatment, until strange winding shapes enter their respective mixes duly welcoming an intimate headphone listen.

In 96 Back’s words: “This is a record I feel like I’ve been trying to write for years, it feels like the most accurate body of work to match the ideas in my mind. Trying to project a lot of the records I hold very dear to me through this lens, interpreting how they sound to me and merging them with ideas of finding the drama and excitement in the full spectrum of emotions on the tip of my tongue, that’s what ended up being Love Letters, Nine Through Six.”

Love Letter, Nine Through Six is a refined work from an artist truly coming into his own, crafting a unique sonic universe.