Peter Van Hoesen – Kelly Criterion (Center 91)

Peter Van Hoesen’s Kelly Criterion EP delivers a set of propulsive techno excursions that represents acid house past, present and future

Belgian techno artist Peter Van Hoesen’s Kelly Criterion EP is a musical memorial device. I activated its internal time travel properties by stepping out onto the street on a blazing hot day and hitting play on my trusty old iPod Classic. “Second Hologram Rose” started up and although I continued to walk along an East London street, I had the most vivid sensation that I was simultaneously walking the streets of Elgin, a town in the north east of Scotland. It was 1993 wrapped up in 2019. I was hearing in the present, but also listening to a Billy Nasty mixtape in the past. The feeling endured more than a fleeting moment and something of it lingered as I continued through the day. I’m not even suggesting that “Second Hologram Rose” necessarily resembles anything that Billy Nasty played back then, but I am prepared to give in to the experience regardless.

Van Hoesen recently set up the Center 91 label (this is only the second release) to put out techno today that wouldn’t be out of place in a future-thinking warehouse rave in the 1990s. So of course there is an element of looking back. Acid house didn’t run its course however and can still be as vibrant now as it was back then. Kelly Criterion is vibrant and then some.

The aforementioned “Second Hologram Rose” takes off with a pounding bass-soaked beat, recalling the drive of Dave Clarke circa Red 2. Cosmic engineers manipulate the sonic space behind, injecting denizens of the dancefloor with the idea that intergalactic travel is possible through music. “Trim the Facts” refuses to let up – and why should it? – tumbling down through a black hole, screaming a sustained acid howl as it goes. HAL 9000-enabled engines power up. There’s a vastness to the track; it cannot be contained.

“Kelly Criterion” itself dials down the unbreakable force of the first two tracks – although not by much, it must be said – and proceeds to deliver the heaviest of bleep and squelch cuts. A doomsday clock ticks away at the track’s dark heart, though the overall effect is inviting rather than off-putting. Finally, “Dead Mans Catch” is the sound of lasers repeatedly fired, resistance fighters executing guerrilla tactics against alien overlords. Relentless, in your face techno that remains thrilling and inventive throughout, Kelly Criterion assaults the dancefloor with open arms and a Chris Cunningham-styled grin on its face.