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Hushush Records' Threesome Series marches on, and the latest installment, Bad Roads, Young Drivers, marks the half-way point of this unique collaboration. This time around Mick Harris (Scorn, Quoit, Painkiller) supplied the source material and passed it on to Mark Spybey (Dead Voices On Air, Download, Propeller) who diligently messed around with it and provided the 11 track outcome -- a fluid mesh of their two styles.

With Harris renown for his variety of rhythmic projects and a forte in electronic percussion, and the rich, textural, atmospheric elements that stand out in Spybey's body of work as DVOA and Propeller, a head-on collision of the two was easy to anticipate. When you simultaneously play Scorn's Zander and DVOA's How Hollow Heart (incidentally the last Bad Roads track, "Waaal," is based on samples from this disc's "Jievoao") the two work quite well, complementing each other and at times fitting lock and key, however accidental that may be. This collaboration is more succinct, taking it to the next level. It's as though Harris' beats were shrink-wrapped in a thick coat of Spybey's stylistic input.

"Good Way to Start a Bad Day" opens the disc with severely disjointed, spaced out beats that slowly work their way into a regular tempo amidst washes of tones, subtle whirs, cryptic vocal sample loops and undulating bass growls. Occasionally one side of the collaboration will have an audible influence on the direction of a track. With "Misery Gote," for example, contemplative drones take a back seat to the frenzied rhythm. Whereas "Aeper," sans percussion, slowly builds up intensity and sounds like a subway elegantly grinding to a scraping halt in slow motion.

The quality of this release shouldn't come as any surprise after the precedent set by the first installment in the series, Sfumato. Next up, for the finale, Ambre and Harris will go at it, and my guess is that this Threesome will only become stronger as it comes to a close.