Team Shadetek
Burnerism
Warp
The young and prolific Manhattan duo Team Shadetek have a small series of self-released discs under their belt, but this Warp release is their first full-length studio album. Burnerism, as the title implies, shows off the duo’s graffiti/hip-hop influences and their minimal, techno heavy reliance on thumping rhythm work – albeit slightly cut up and deconstructed, in conventional Warp manner.
Team Shadetek is certainly good at creating these jagged background tracks, infusing their music with a sense of careful density. However, their melodies are rather overused, the sounds almost clichéd, and the duo seems unsure of how to work their electronic minimalism in the context of hip-hop rhythms. “Lanolin” and “Limes” are the album’s two longest tracks (and the most successful ones), with Team Shadetek expanding the scope of their not-so-original hybrid techno. Elsewhere, though, there is little that bigger and better artists haven’t done before, and with more success.
