It’s rare that I get send something cold where I haven’t heard of the any of the artists involved or the label. But it’s always nice to have ones expectations shattered once in a while.
The first track on this double A-side, entitled ‘Pearl, is possibly one of the most exciting garage tracks I’ve ever heard. Roof Light’s ‘Pearl’ takes the shuffling drum beats and soaring R&B vocals one would typically associate with garage and launches them headlong into a blender, chopping and screwing the vocals with reckless abandon.
While putting the words “glitch” and “R&B” into the same sentence might make you recoil in horror at first, don’t be afraid. The scattered bleeps and disjointed melodies actually tie together surprisingly well. The strength in this track lies in its ability to blur the lines between percussion and melody: distorted pianos and bass licks become off-kilter drum beats and snaps and clicks merge and collide into disorienting rhythmic melodies.
Slowing things down somewhat, Lostlojic approaches R&B with an ambient, almost Balaeric drone of clipped vocals over lush synth washes and a battering ram of footwork tom toms. While ‘So Much’ doesn’t quite pack the punch of the A-side, it’s still a respectable effort from Ukrainian Lostlojic.
Perhaps the B-side suffers from being paired with such a strong track from Roof Light, but it never quite reaches the heights its build-up suggests. Apart from a rather stunning arpeggiated synth line, one can’t help but feel the producer bit off more than he could chew.
That minor niggle aside, the ‘Pearl’ / ‘So Much’ pairing is a hugely enjoyable one that, despite at times biting off more than it can chew, is a welcome progression of the wave of downtempo house and techno the scene is experiencing right now.
