Truth Has No Path

Album Review

San Francisco producer/DJ Matthew Kratz is "known for his intuitive ability to carve beats out of the bits." A merry prankster of the nu breaks skool, he has the ability to be as cerebral as Aphex Twin or Squarepusher while maintaining a dancefloor sensibility with the skittery riddims of jungle, the divebomb bass of acid techno, and the dope flow of hip-hop. His songs showcase a razor-sharp skill with the cut and paste of digital composition as well as an uncanny turntable technique. On his debut full-length, Truth Has No Path, some pieces are reminiscent of the noir soundtracks of µ-Ziq or Amon Tobin (the chopped-hop of "Imminent Threat," the paranoid march of "New World Empire"), while others show his whimsical side (the bouncy glitch intro and infant squeals of "Lonely Electron," the found sample of "You hear that? You know what that is? That's a nice sound..." on "Faux Show," a remix of Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"), the unifying element being his impeccable ability to let his handcrafted sounds, beats, and grooves shine through.