Electro/club 2021

We will dance again, we will sweat on dancefloors again, this is a promise. It's not yet known when this will be possible, when we'll be able to gather again without it causing worrying viral outbreaks, but sooner or later this moment will come. Judging by the selection presented here, producers and DJs themselves can't wait to return to their ideal dimension, to unleash their creativity in clubs around the world. Haiti, Hong Kong, Australia, the eternal London melting pot: from the electronic/dance hubs of the whole world, a collection of the best Eps/12"s heard over the past three months, never as eager as now to be played in their context of choice. Until then, dance, dance, dance till you drop, in the comfort of your own living room (or your favorite holiday spot)!

Deekapz – Ensaio sobre você (Self-released)

Kaytranada? Even without wanting to draw comparisons that arguably fall outside the sonic and aesthetic coordinates of the Brazilian duo, it's hard not to trace the Haitian producer's compositional cut within the folds of this short self-produced Ep. A sensual blend of house, r&b and downtempo, modulated with a warmth and nostalgic touch that dissolves the boundaries between genres, "Ensaio sobre você" works finely on sound and melodies, without shunning interesting samples, aiming for a slow, alluring, subtly jazzy danceable whole. From the sun-drenched interlocking of "Hoje Tem", which plays with Destiny's Child's "Say My Name" alongside introspective electro-funk touches, to the distorted saxophone of "Margarida" (jazzy lounge for luxury clubs) and the deep-r&b flourishes of the interlude "Eu Quero Entender", the São Paulo duo carefully traces the outlines of their elegant stylistic range, giving each moment its own fitting personality. Between the nocturnal mood dotted with xylophone runs of "Confesso", and the guitar-driven Fort Romeau feel of "Acabou", they speak of a duo standing firmly on its own feet, buoyed by a sparkling, refined melodicism with which to launch even more projects. The material is all there.

Doss – 4 New Hit Songs (LuckyMe)

Seven years after the first self-titled Ep, which injected a nervous, aggressive vein into the fringes of a dreamlike, lulling trance, Doss returns — one of the most curious and elusive names in world electronic music — with a set of four tracks that push the project's expressive research well forward. Far more concise and linear, drawing its arsenal more from house and hyperpop, "4 New Hit Songs" lives up to its title, offering a quartet with catchy, immediate hooks that don't hesitate to dig up emo-rock structures (the less intoxicated Kai Whiston of "Strawberry") or to look back at their own past, but through a decidedly more distorted, hallucinated lens ("Puppy"). In between, pop moments for rebellious automatons and lucid digital romances outline a bold, brazen quartet that gives fresh shine to a name too good to stay confined to a single Ep. Now something more substantial is needed.

Gyrofield – Title Card (Inspected)

Can you imagine the meeting point between the most glacial ambient-techno around, the most cerebral drum'n'bass and stinging downtempo relaxation? No? Well, an eighteen-year-old from Hong Kong (now based in Bristol) might help clear things up. Frantic but never chaotic, "Title Card" shows an absolute command of its reference points, of the stylistic traits of its base genres, recalibrated with a thoroughly contemporary temper that draws as much on the pointillism of Lorenzo Senni's trance as on the extreme timbral experiments of Zomby. In this way, the pensive, future-garage-inflected matter of "Silk" coexists with the ambient-glitch breaks of "Rosequartz", barely veined with curious synthetic streaks, before a skittering rhythmic jolt makes the whole thing far more tense and dust-fine. If "23nd" shows a lethal control over its breaks, playing with murky grime modulations and distant jungle echoes, "FYDB" plays its drum'n'bass hand much more openly, though the intensive use of shuffle and cuts speaks more of a plunderphonic approach to the material than anything else. Too much for thirteen minutes of EP? If anything, the opposite: the curiosity to see what such a young, productive talent will do next is extremely high.

Kaidi Tatham – 7 Inch Nails (Sounds Familiar)

Fresh off an album that once again exemplifies his pioneering broken-beat talent, London's Kaidi Tatham launches a series of 12"s for Italy's Sounds Familiar, condensing his lush compositional flair into eight minutes of music across two tracks with sinuous jazz overtones, though modulated with thoroughly different approaches. "Feeling Happy" starts from a rhythmic ostinato and interweaves it with jaunty broken brushes, almost as if it were an elegant drum'n'bass pattern slowed to half speed; no harm done when the melody shifts toward fusion, showing a refined handling of composition that doesn't shy away from constant shifts in tone and bass virtuosity, before an unexpected change of pace closes the track with a coup de theatre. "Sooner Or Later" doesn't shy away from that fusion touch either, but underpins it with a softer, nocturnal, subtly minimal cut, before its ending too reveals altogether different intentions, looking toward Brazil and the expert hand of Marcos Valle. In just eight minutes, an entire world of solutions and possibilities, entrusted to a hand of proven experience. Irresistible.

Karima F – Fief Fef (Schloss)

In just three tracks, Norwegian/Algerian producer Karima F packs in enough ideas to fill something like four albums. Too much going on? Not at all. However dense with ideas, the tracks on "Fief Fef" never overplay their hand, distilling the whole into something almost minimalist, a sharpness of expression that runs from the curious vocal glitches of "Crab Ride", grafted onto shredded breakbeat phrasing, to the funky cadences of "Youth", set within a whole that seems almost to recall the dark compactness of 2010s bass music. These are exercises in evocation and contrast, in passions and hiding places that the author's attentive ear knows how to manipulate, how to entrust to elaborate rhythmic pathways. Even the greater directness of "Sheer Rage" (a title that says it all) doesn't escape this interplay, weaving a motif that sets a nervier base against the trance prism of the melody, synthetic particles that graft on Actress-like touches under a Nathan Micay feel. Hazy yet still capable of landing punches when needed, Karima F's second EP sends dancefloor nostalgia well past the danger threshold, conjuring images that seem to no longer belong to our world.

LSDXOXO – Dedicated 2 Disrespect (XL)

The hypnotic, industrial-flavoured techno of Jasmine Infiniti; the night, with its cargo of mysteries and unspoken desires; the sweat of clubs, still shut because of the ongoing pandemic. From his native Philadelphia to Berlin, where he's launched a series of his own nights and lent his production skills to some heavyweight names (first and foremost Shygirl), LSDXOXO is the hottest, most brazen name in new techno, a proudly queer, shameless showman who lays his filthiest intentions bare in black and white. Whether it's seducing the Devil (enough to make Lil Nas X himself blush) or devoting himself with pure zeal to the filthiest possible eroticism, the producer puts together four tracks with irresistible beats, pure grooves that wriggle between agile ballroom streaks (the deep contours of "Mutant Exotic"), utterly filthy confessions over jittery electro bounce ("Sick Bitch"), and driving acid propulsion that takes a cue from Moodymann's lesson but makes it slippier and more elusive than ever ("The Devil"). The fact that the artist's own voice is finally a central element of his output is the missing piece, one that lends further personality to a sonically interesting project that just needed the decisive push to make it explode. With a label like XL taking an interest, this mission in irreverence is set to take plenty of prisoners.

Manuka Honey – Industrial Princess (NAAFI)

Industrial music? If it comes with such an imaginative, hybrid edge, it's always welcome. In a project dense with polyrhythms and ideas ranging far and wide across the Latin American continuum, London producer Manuka Honey clocks in some serious credentials on her debut, combining sinuousness and rigour, deconstruction and compactness. A melting pot viewed from multiple angles ("Pestañas" even puts forward hybridisation with gqom), across four tracks the artist displays a world of possibilities, as caught up in sweet melodic temptations as in sharp synthetic abrasions, perfectly in line with the play of contrasts that animates the EP. Manuka Honey's vision of industrial is such that it almost transfigures itself, hiding behind multiple sonic masks, in which even contextual elements like the sirens of "Diabl@" or the sword duel underpinning "Ssling" become rhythmic structures in their own right, load-bearing elements of tracks that are curious, lively, always ready to defy convention and wholeheartedly embrace the rich cultural mélange on offer here. An industrial princess indeed, but what dynamism!

Nia Archives – Headz Gone West (HIJINXX)

Want grime, maybe the rough, dirty kind from its early days? You'll be satisfied. References to the drum'n'bass of the good old days? Rest assured, that's here too. Hip-hop? Soul gone electro? In just fourteen minutes, twenty-year-old Londoner Nia Archives sketches out and populates an entire universe, through pop-tinged songs that nonetheless bear the deep imprint of rave culture and everything that has carried its torch, reclaiming three decades of hardcore continuum with an experience that's remarkable given her age. If "Sober Heels" seems to bring the ironic touch of early Lily Allen into a limping breakbeat frame, "(Over)Thinking" is pure golden-era Metalheadz, voracious, frantic jungle, a direct witness to the flair of early Goldie. That her timbre leans toward a soul vocality rich in melodic emphasis is all to the good, making her partnership with the sound even more incisive. From the lightning grime-goes-Dubstep of closer "Don't Kid Urself" to the underground dub of "Crossroads", Nia pairs delicacy and sonic solidity with equal poise, working the contrasts with the class of a seasoned pro. Rarely have the Nineties sounded so contemporary.

Nkom Bivoué – Before Zeun Ya Yop (Rebel Up!)

A brief appetizer for a forthcoming album ("Zeun Ya Yop", to be precise), this three-track EP is an effective taste of the production skills of the young DJ and producer from Yaoundé, a musician who, from his vantage point in Cameroon, looks out over the rich complex of African cultures, roaming the length and breadth of the continent in an afro-electronic mélange. Gqom, afrohouse, coupé-décalé and more all get tangled up in a sonic web as captivating as it is thick with atmospheric mystery, a meditative allure that wraps around the melodic flashes like fresh silk. Cosmic keyboards manage to soften the danceable drive of the title track without sacrificing its dancefloor potential, and likewise the South African echoes of "Alert" find a livelier, more vibrant dimension, further amplified by the vocal element. The instrumental "No Lele", though slowing the pace, clarifies Bivoué's hybrid thinking, the curious, tangential nature of his imagination, which pictures sci-fi concepts and pan-African visions in one single, imaginative embrace. We await the album with great anticipation!

Tapestry Of Sound – Tapestry Of Sound (Step Ball Chain)

It's always a joy to see the live chemistry of two DJs (and life partners) take shape as a collaborative project, letting ideas and sparks that once simply floated through their nights together finally bloom. And if the whole thing comes wrapped in a fitting conceptual frame, all the better. A soundtrack for the Tapestry of 2020, a multimedia installation conceived as a backdrop for live-streams, "Tapestry Of Sound" finds Roza Terenzi (a name well known in abstract circuits) and her partner D. Tiffany putting together a versatile array of electronic sinuosity, as swift and jittery as it is adept at dodging conventional patterns, blending garage, techno, bass music and various strains of abstraction into a quartet of tracks that's narcotic, dazzling and subtly psychedelic. With an A-side featuring two divergent versions of "Maypole Theme" (speedier and more chiaroscuro in the "Piano Roll Mix", darker and more segmented in the "Looming Giant Mix"), on the following pair the duo grows even bolder and more explosive, with a "Wasp Of A Woman" that masks its hallucinatory nature behind clever vocal samples and menacing rhythmic contributions. "Inhale, Exhale" calms the timbral frenzy but in turn steps on the gas of groove and immediate danceability, letting echoes of early-2000s minimal coexist with lively melodic touches, ready to set dancefloors alight across half the world (or at least whichever ones are open). Darkness and grit, for a project we hope won't turn out to be a one-off, however lucky.

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