Top EPs July 2021
Well, it might feel weird, but we’re living in a free world again! Yeah the weather’s crap and Houghton has been cancelled again, but the odds are you’ve been to a rave or two by now and heard Overmono’s So U Kno about 8 times, chatted hot piss to strangers and lost yourself in a loud room, and life is bloody good.
With so much more to look forward to over the summer and endless events popping up on the very near horizon, let’s have a peruse at some of the sounds of the month.
Reflex Blue – Digital Dreams
There’s absolutely something going on down under, as this self-released digital EP goes to show. It comes curtesy of yet another Melbourne head, Reflex Blue. Title track Digital Dreams follows on where the likes of DJ Life, Guy Contact and Pretty Girl have left off, all drifting soundscapes and swirling psychedelic prog house and trance vibes.
Elsewhere in this simulated slumber we find the dark, dank synth lines and electro arrangements of Signs Of Water, our light electro workout continuing on the choppy Life Forms. The hallucination ends with Space Rock - a downtempo, blissful trip back to consciousness.
AK-ONE – Scenic Route EP
An absolutely stunning debut from brand new Bristol outfit Common Ancestors. AK-ONE, the head of the label, brings 4 tracks of transcendental, winding, space-and-time-splitting material that blends elements of jungle, DnB, and breaks on an ambient and techno palette, ready-made to unleash upon unsuspecting ears this summer.
We open with Skygazer, a dramatic ambient piece that sets a scene in the midst of a technicolour nebula, before we jump into hyperspace on Scenic Route, a pulsing acid techno track that weaves in tribal vocals and squeaky clean junglist breaks, in a nod to that strictly Bristol-based heritage. Bushcraft is a masterpiece, think Donato Dozzy if he’d grown up in Brixton. We end with Outer Circuit, a gentle breaksy cruise along a late-night street awash in yellow streetlamp light. Magic.
Various Artists – Viewpoint EP
Another trip to outer space now, but this one is bumpier, and at times, frankly terrifying. The third instalment from the space•lab label continues from where they left off, with man of the hour Adam Pits opening proceedings with a blast of trancey melodies and atom-splitting basslines that will no doubt be launching minds higher and further than Jeff Bezos ever could.
Next up, Anderson brings us back down to earth with a great big boink with more deep, cosy layers of squelch than you can listen to at once on Tasty Water Stuff. On the flip, Lisene continues his form for darkly reverberating tunnels of flawlessly sequenced percussion and strobe-light synthesiser stabs, before Phazma brings us all home through the Warpgate, a proper, proper, twisted journey.
REES – Enter The Realm EP
Something a little bit Italoey now from head of Paradiso REES, as he makes his debut on the Berlin-based AEON label. We kick off with Dutch Willow, which throbs along steadily, a hypnotic little journey that playfully layers repetitive synth lines to nod your head to – rhythmically – affirmatively.
On the title track that nod turns into full body-spasm blast off, as euphoric melody jumps aboard the next euphoric melody, a chaotic train in a happy storm of synths made for those larger moments – and movements – at approximately 4am. Curses’ remix of Enter The Realm jacks up the 4/4 on the original, and Project Phoenix ends the ride by dragging yet more top drawer melodies from big buckets of churning basslines and warped effects. Dark, danceable, dizzying.
Ramu – RIDE03
Hopping aboard the final flight out of Bristol on Magic Carpet Records, your first stop is the soaring house drifter Mist Or Cloud. Gliding along on a chemtrail of chord swells and stabbing bass, it’s the sort of tune that’s made for those hazy afternoon beers in the sun – anticipation building for the big fat main event.
And boy, does that happen. Mirrored Me interrupts pattering breaks with a pelvis-melting low end and wraps the whole package in a dreamy atmosphere of lush pads, before things get a little rude on 2049 Rain. Distorted and deep, bleeping and bonce-twisting, leaving you gasping for breath and crying ‘let’s have it’ as you swill back another Red Stripe.
Various Artists - ÆX x Delsin Records
It’s sad when things as good as the white-label ÆX series come to an end, but by teaming up with Delsin Records this EP feels like a real highlight to end the 4 year run, spanning 15 releases. On the A side you have some ÆX stalwarts with Taupe, Emeline and the man himself Jasper Wolff providing immaculate analogue techno – as we’ve come to expect at this point.
Delsin supplies the talent for the B-side, with R.O.W.S turning ear-canals into trenches filled with deep, deep dub techno treacle and Annie Hall combining sparkling hi-hats and reverberating synths on T.T.O. Yone-ko finishes off the EP and the series in style with KKLKN, a slow-burning hazy house groove, the gently smoking cig end at the end of one hell of a project.
Slacker –Twisted Heads
Right off the back of his quite stunning debut LP, Slacker gives us a straight-up, 5 track electro EP, and you can basically smell that heady scent of overpriced lager and cold sweat on this one. Twisted Heads opens the proceedings, and continues the no frills theme by, basically, twisting your head.
The rest of the EP carries on in the same vein of nonsense, the warped highlight of which is probably Prototype, a take-no-prisoners jackhammer of a track with a nice tense middle section. Not recommended at the family barbecue.
Kessler – Foul Play EP
Holding Hands are on an absolute rampage at the minute, if there was any oil sat under their studios you’d forgive the U.S. for invading the premises. The next record of mass destruction comes curtesy of Kessler, and it’s another one that, when played on a big system, ties your stomach in knots.
Foul Play combines hard techno kicks with electro and bass elements, and Lotus is gun fingers in audio form – huge kicks, jungle rhythms and samples, and a low end that is just ridiculous. Flip the record, soak in the UKG frequencies of Hood Mentality, judge for yourself what to expect with R2D2 On Crack, grimace with pleasure, flip again, repeat.
Alec Falconer & Harry Wills – I Just Want My Life Back
Housey goodness. Wholesome bouncy rhythms. Fun vocal sampling. And free socks! There’s very little not to like about this latest release on Sock It To Me, and if Alec Falconer and Harry Willis want their life back then if it sounds this good, by all means they can have it.
Highlights include Call Of The Wild where Enchanted Rhythms lends his help to whip the crowd into a frenzy, and the final curtain call, an irresistibly groovy beat, floating synths, and 2step Bec just nudging us into a state of euphoria we may have just forgotten how to find over the last 18 months. And those socks are really good gear.
Pillow Queen & Ruin – Calling Me
How best to describe the 10 minute, 118 BPM epic that opens up this EP? The long, drawn out chords are enough to hint at just how magic this track is to become, and as each element is added: the organic drums, warped vocal samples and slippery little acid lines, you know you’re in for an aural treat as it twists and turns its way to no particular climax – it just doesn’t need one.
Tunnel Vision ramps everything up a notch or 16, with harshly filtered synths and a rhythm that really does get you, as Ruin says on the track, to sweat your prayers. The EP ends with She’s Hot Magic, a track that’s all at once organic, trippy… and horny. Top stuff from D. Tiffany and Vani-T.