UK dance music antagonist Works Of Intent redefines big room techno on ‘Richer Sound’, an album with six
all-new tracks alongside six cuts previously released on Laurent Garnier and Scan X's COD3 QR label.
Works Of Intent is a vital voice in the underground who champions the sounds and stories of South Asian
creatives in his role as Project Manager and Visual Designer for DAYTIMERS. He has also written multiple essays
on race, class and privilege in the industry while laying down expressive sets across four decks at key clubs like
fabric, Panoramabar and Rex. His emotive, storytelling sounds have come on labels like Turbo, Rekids and
Monkeytown, and outside that, he's a go-to mix engineer for some of the UK's most exciting prospects.
‘Richer Sound’ features six tracks previously released on the label’s Various Artist EPs and six brand new offerings
that avoid tired big room tropes. Gone are the snare rolls, white noise risers and kick drops, instead Work's
operates under the mantra of "big tunes for big hearts" where musicality makes the motive. The artist himself has
taken care of the artwork, mixing and mastering and says of the album, “It’s melancholia turned up so loud you
can’t ignore it. It’s a deafening barrage of emotions designed for super clubs. It’s unsubtle, it’s unabashed, it’s
unrelenting, and it wears its heart on its sleeve. It’s unmistakably a work of intent.”
Opener 'You Should' is a thrilling breakbeat tour de force that nails emotional impact and dance floor weight with
impeccable craft. The title track is a colossal mind melter with throwback references to the home cinema
experience of yesteryear in its samples of tape rewinds, DVD disc trays and CD disc changers, all adding a
constantly rising urgency, then 'V.H.S.' brings a brutalist UK edge to proceedings with tambourine-layered and
echoed dub snares making it a real bass bin workout. The powerful 'Fully Focused' builds to deliver the loudest
sound you'll ever hear as Works Of Intent makes his synths scream; then there is a moment to dream on 'The
Colour Of It' with its ethereal uncertainty, low-slung rhythms and epic synth washes.
Cars and motorsport have been a recurring theme in previous Works Of Intent releases and appear again here in
'Left Unseen', which has the high octane, death-defying adrenaline of rally driving perfectly transposed into a big
room techno experience. 'Winning Dulls The Pain' is another cacophony of rising and descending V10 engines
underpinning an ever-urgent lead, and 'Old Ways, New Mistakes' bounces boisterously with stadium-sized kick
drums and synthetic mourning that will break hearts across arenas. 'Add New Ones' brings the heft of dubstep
minimalism to a slower 4x4 form, and 'Dreamt I Saw You' takes fawning imaginations to lucid heights with a synth
and cymbal pairing designed to get you stargazing in the club. There is an unrelenting Berlin techno drive to 'Hard
Year' that peaks in a wash of cymbals and warbled melancholia before 'You Should (Reprise)' reimagines the
opening cut in a more patiently building form with even more emotional impact.
‘Richer Sound’ is just the sort of expertly-crafted, genre-busting work of emotional and physical potency you
would expect from such a restless nonconformist as Works Of Intent.