5 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Neil Scrivin

The title of this just kind of throws down the mic.

Retro electronic wizard Neil Scrivin is actually quite a wizard at several splinters of the bleep bloop scene, and Geek Upmanship – a production from the past (proving a rather longstanding relationship with genius), remastered and given an additional remix – is a focused, brief but dense statement on how expansive and weird and yet accessible this genre can be. Guitars and drums seamlessly interact with the most head-bobbingly grooving of beats, the latter of which flip-flop from old school synthwave-esque bop to playful IDM, while also fiddling with the emotional register between aggressive, contemplative, and silly, all dialed in to be focused and complete bite-sized tracks. That sentence tries to do it all; Geek Upmanship does do it all, even stitching the front and back of this mini-masterpiece together with a hop over into ambience (Inky Gorgeous), then using the title track to kind of blend everything together – an epic cherry upon an epic sundae.

Having not heard the original, I can’t speak to the remaster in comparison, but as a fresh listen, this thing sounds… well, fresh. It sounds new. Scrivin’s production blends eras together effectively, and then the mastering brings all the right elements to the fore, crisp and warm.

A subsequent mic drop is delivered by Datasette, bringing their clicky, minimalist style to the ambient track, creating a kind of torch-passing vibe that gives the EP a doubly weighty ending.