***** Heiki – Tower Of Acid (Paper+Plus paplus63 – 2019)

Heiki (pronounce ‘hey-key’) Sillaste, frontman of the Canadian 1980s/1990s industrial group Digital Poodle, can look back to about 50 releases under different monikers. After two previous albums “Dub Museum” and “The North Shore” – the latter with dreamSTATE -, which delved into dubbed out and ambient electronics, it seemed that he had abandoned downtown rush and retreated to a lakeside log cabin, to enjoy foggy mornings and wildlife. In his newest acid techno album, Toronto based artist leaps back to urban civilisation, to sticky subway tunnels and naked industrial landscapes, which are providing a carcass to Heiki’s newest work.

After drone infected “Hoaxxx”, the title track “Tower Of Acid” gets the party started with ‘acid’ exclamations and punching riffs, which would twin with Atom TM’s “Ground Loop”. Biting tweaks of acid house bomb “Con Job” are leading to “Winter Acid” and “Nova”, both standing for groovy 303 brainworms with mysterious voice effects and joined by “Liberty Acid” with ample, tech house minded chords. Another crowd stunner, giving a proof of the artist’s formidable form, is “Kompramat”, while caustic bubblebath horrors of “Drug Fraud” take us to life’s borderlines, until the doors are closed with laid back acid experimentation “S.V.H.S.”.

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