Stephen Laubner never fails to deliver the goods, whether on his own label Something or elsewhere. Having recently popped up on The Untold Stories, this time around hes dropping his uniquely crusty compositions on Synthetic Gold. After a quietly disconcerting ambient opening, the leftfield grind of The Taphead pushes an uncompromising agenda of ragged bass and an unrelenting groove. October Sunrise by way of contrast is a more intimate, sweet natured affair. Syntax Error too taps into the softer side of Laubner s craft in a most mesmerizing of ways, but for the die hard fans fear not, there s also plenty of locked groove loops included to keep you tripping into infinity.