Review
Luke Slater’s latest deployment as Planetary Assault Systems trades the melodic expansions of his recent work for raw, physical pressure. Arriving a decade after his last LP on Ostgut Ton, Planetary People strips back lingering atmospherics to focus entirely on immediate, high-tension club functionality compiled from his live improvisations.
The critical consensus centers on this unyielding, mechanical brutality. Bleep notes that the album's "industrial rhythms verge on claustrophobic," dragging the listener into a "foreboding bass thundercloud spewing grinding textures." Instead of expansive breathing room, Slater relies on an arsenal of polyrhythmic thuds, corroded synths, and distorted rave signals that lock into punishing, cyclical grooves.
This stark utilitarianism is exactly what makes the material so effective in its intended environment. Juno Download highlights the project's "subtle but incessant percussive builds," identifying the album as the "very essence of sleek, futuristic techno." Built upon unvarnished "cavernous kicks and waves of merciless claps," the record operates as a meticulously crafted toolkit engineered to relentlessly propel the largest rooms.
