EP Review: Got Me Moving - Sinden presents The Crystal System

Holy hot disco body music seeps out of every poor of this new collaboration from Sinden and Azari & III vocalist Starving Yet Full in the second track from new collaborative project The Crystal System.

We've not heard much from Azari & III in some time and, as far as I know, Sinden in even longer. This release feels like a rebirth for both of them. Taking much of the disco influenced sound of Azari & III the new outfit apply that sensibility to a tighter sound aimed more exclusively at the dancefloor.

The original track is a lean house track constructed around thick 4/4 drum kicks and Starving Yet Full's funky disco-influenced vocals. It does what it needs to and little more - big room sounds with soul - and works exactly because of that restraint.

Four remixes also feature on this release. Sonny Fodera's is a taught, bass first take that reigns things in further to create a cool basement feel for darker portions of the night. Mickey Kojak's mix is a stripped back techno influenced take whilst the Odysseus Dark House mix takes things into full-on tech-house territory, full of deep synth stabs and a reverb drenched vocal bridge. Finally the Pilo Remix is more beat-orientated, a shuffling beat carving out a dark atmosphere amid echoing vocals and stark melodies.

All mixes are likely to have their fans and this release comes together to create a solid introduction for The Crystal System.

Got Me Moving is out now on Sweat It Out. Check out the original mix below:

Sinden presents The Crystal System Feat SYF - Got Me Moving forthcoming on Sweat It Out Co-written with Nick Hook Remixes coming soon from Sonny Fodera, Odysseus, Mikey Kojak & Pilo More material to follow !

EP Review: Sailing West - Working Girl

Hailing from Chicago, Working Girl have been experimenting with their craft since 2013. Sailing West, out on Continental Baths next week, is their debut EP.

Sailing West opens with the title track and it sets much of the tone for the EP. Cue dream pop mixed with psychedelic beats and hazy R&B. The accompanying press sheet references everyone from Prince through Clams Casino via the guitar work of the Smashing Pumpkins and you can hear hints of various bands and genres in here. Much like Animal Collective manage to smash together massively eclectic sounds to create something entirely new, this EP manages to reference lots but feel completely distinct.

The falsetto vocal hooks of Naomi and Aqua Neue certainly fit into the current trend for emotionally exposed and experimentally produced R&B - the latter even manages to sound like a cross between How To Dress Well and Autre Ne Veut. The overall sonic landscape here is far less constrained however, full of reverb, fuzzy melodies and freestyled guitar solos that pan through the listeners head.

At 14-minutes Sailing West is a short but impressive EP - four short songs and an instrumental interlude are just enough to leave me impressed and just a little desperate for more.

Sailing West is out on Monday through Continental Baths, check out the title track on YouTube below:

EP Review: I Can't Figure You Out - Hugh

Joshua Idehen seems to be everywhere at the moment, having also just announced his new album with LV, Islands, a follow up to 2011's Routes... I Can't Figure You Out is the debut EP from Hugh, one of Idehen's many projects, this time the result of a chance meeting with fellow London musician Andy Highmore in a bar.

The two uncovered a shared appreciation a number of disperate musical influences - the dreamy sun-kissed reverb of Beach House, the uniquely British sound of Soul II Soul, the vocal harmonies of Grizzly Bear. If it is difficult to imagine what these things sound like together now, it won't be once you have heard I Can't Figure You Out.

Now joined by guitarist Martin 'Tino' Kolarides and vocalist Izzy Brooks, Hugh feel very much a complete and well prepared band. Each of the four tracks here stands out in its own right. On Charlie both Idehen and Brooks pine for a friend or lover led astray, a tribute to the kind of unconditional love that is incapable of fading. Alongside this the music sways, a breezy easy-going soul matched up with a warm deep house bounce.

I Can't Figure You Out is every bit as potent as when Hugh posted it (and I shared it) last month. It's a dreamy, spellbound maze of emotions - longing, lust and confusion - with Brook's vocals captivating and the dramatic production lending the song the life-or-death sensibility it sets out to invoke. On Not Fair Too Far the bass and rhythms provide some earthly humanity in contrast to the fluttering heart beats of layered of warm syncopated, staccato melodies. Again, another track about confused emotions and the need for clarity and someone trust-worthy - ironic given the uncomplicated dedication of the EP's opening.

As if in response to that contrast I Can Be Your Light feels like the completion of the square - a song of utter devotion. In contrast to the rest of the EP it feels just a touch thin, almost over-produced, but the vocals and piano playing are sublime. The tentative arrival of Izzy's vocal, seemingly out of nowhere on the word 'window' but actually there gently building courage over the preceding lines, feels like a metaphor for the push and pull of real love. Give a bit and trust the other person reciprocates, pull back and see if they come forward... But just don't play those silly games.

If I Can't Figure You Out is anything to go by Hugh wear their heart on their sleeves - this is an EP that talks of little more than the complexity and range of human emotional attraction. It does so with enough honesty to make it feel fresh, and style to make it feel irresistible.

If I Can't Figure You Out is out now, listen below on Soundcloud:

EP Review: Fame - The Acid

This new project from Adam Freeland, together with Ry X and Steve Nalepa, blows my mind. I've always harboured a soft-spot for Freeland, long after he ceased being 'cool', but this is probably his best work yet... The kind of sophisticated ambient pop hinted at on his remixes on GU32.

The original version (featured in the video above) doesn't feature on this remix EP, but it's a gorgeously wasted sultry dubby track full of loose rhythms, slow synths and gently picked guitars that evoke Spanish sunsets.

The second surprise is that Jesse Rose, whom I haven't heard a thing from since minimal was the new hot thing, delivers a gorgeously subtle remix. The synths are accentuated and the rhythm track tightened giving the track an even more dreamy, spectral sensation. It is like floating 500-feet above the world as it goes around its all so busy parties and hectic nattering, whilst we are several steps removed, relaxed yet slightly saddened by the distance. It's like tapping against the glass of sobriety when you know you can't quite remember what it felt like.

Rose also provides a dub, which strips out the vocal and some of the synths to further emphasise the warm bass.

Finally Factory Floor provide a much more robotic interpretation, full of their usual Germanic mechanical wonder but filtered through the same dreamy gaze of the original to create a weirdly balanced piece that blends warm humanity with clinical efficiency.

All three mixes plus the original are great. I've not had the chance to listen to the album yet but based off of this release I definitely will do - you can currently stream it in full on Soundcloud below. Order the album now from Amazon.co.uk on CD or MP3 [affiliate links].

Available on: iTunes - http://smarturl.it/Liminal CD - http://smarturl.it/cdliminal Double Vinyl - http://smarturl.it/lpliminal www.wearetheacid.com

EP Review: Bengali Cinema - Garden City Movement

Bengali Cinema unravels in the mind like a moment of semi-consciousness unfurling oneself from a hotel bed into the gorgeous yet alien and distant morning sun.

Threesome Garden City Movement hail from Tel Aviv and they create warm Mediterranean dub step full of adobe-like roughly-sculpted edges and sun-drenched halos that encircle the melodies with a fizzy energy. The trio all carry out multiple roles within the band - Johnny Sharoni handling samplers, percussion and vocals; Roi Avital keyboards, guitars, loops and vocals and Yoav Saar keyboards, samplers and guitar. That list should give some sense of the swirl that makes up the four tracks on this EP, lots of detail embellished with more detail for effect.

Bengali Cinema opens with Terracotta, a track that sounds like something Gold Panda left out in the sun until it got tired, emotional and struggled to move. Garden City Movement manage to simultaneously impart a sense of kinaesthesia within their music and yet also provide it with a thick, tangible sense of inertia… The detail in Terracotta moves quickly, but the emotions are dragging at our heels, drawing us back to moments from our past - loved ones and half-remembered times.

The somewhat endearing morbidity continues, with Love + Loss dealing with similar sensations of regret amidst warm and mellow sounds. A gently picked guitar and record player crackle open the track Lir, capturing all the dreamy Ballearic sunshine you could want and blending it into a gorgeously slow track that gently scatters itself in front of you.

The title track is the most overtly song-like moment on the EP, vocals seeking a way to escape with another. It is a beautifully cloying record - granting the sense we’d be having fun if we could just stop questioning what that even means. Garden City Movement have been likened to Friendly Fires, that thinking man’s emotive indie-house band, and it is all here in the slightly sunburnt and paranoid moments of pop… Which is to say I can’t quite get enough.

Bengali Cinema is the soundtrack for moments trapped in paradise, a holiday wished away on being home. It is never less than gorgeous, and yet it sounds like Sharoni, Avital and Saar all miss something else far more. A warm embrace and a little rain to go and walk in perhaps. Until then they will have to keep lounging by the pool and pretending to like it. 

Bengali Cinema is out now through BLDG5, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link]. Stream the EP on Soundcloud below:

Garden City Movement - Bengali Cinema EP 'Bengali Cinema', out 23.6 exclusively on BLDG5 Records. Pre Order Garden City Movement - Entertainment / Bengali Cinema (LP) DELUXE limited edition (300) ,Special colored vinyl http://smarturl.it/bengali-cinema-order Follow Garden City Movement www.facebook.com/GardenCityMovement twitter.com/gardencitymove Follow BLDG5 Records www.facebook.com/bldg5 www.bldg5records.com www.twitter.com/BLDG5Records