Following a pair of remixes for Ki's Soft Exchange EP released on Woodwork in 2019, Upper Regions touches down with his own fierce EP, supported by a set of well connected remixes, including a reciprocal remix from Ki.

The first taste of this flexed collection is the sparse, dark stomper 'Noise of Pleasure', and that it is. One thing apparent in all of Upper Regions' music is his knack for purposefully jarring arrangements. We're guided through Noise of Pleasure by a series of modules and sections that are simultaneously connected and detached. We can never be sure if we're on the way up or the way down, but the resulting ride is only that more intense for it.

Extending perfectly from the opener, the lead single 'Sky System' is entry to the next level. A similar robotic sound set takes on darker detail as the story becomes more drastic, narrated by a disaffected vocal revealing an inescapable metallic and mechanical assimilation.

'Disengage' drones ahead relentlessly with hard intentions. Some classic rave inspired melodic themes and gigantic pumping hoover drones add some familiar character but the whole affair remains absolutely untamed.

For remixes we get a carefully assembled dream team beginning with Fear the Priest, who lights a match to 'Sky System' while we sit back, see it melt and hear it sizzle. Next up Pulse Plant creates malfunction in the central processing unit, twisting 'Sky System' into a jittery and pulverizing floor-pounder. Closing out, the Ki remix of 'Sky System' dares to rebuild its destructive mechanisms over a disco clap, adding some eery bleep melodies and dark choral hits.