XXXY – Last Dance (Rinse)

0

XXXY

Since his first emerged back in 2009 with his debut 12” under his XXXY alias ‘Reflections’ on Mindset, Manchester-based electronic producer Rupert Taylor has continued to experiment with forward-thinking house and garage elements over a steady stream of ensuing releases for labels including All City and Halo Cyan. On the heels of his recent ’18 Hours’ release on Rinse, this second in a series of three 12” EPs ‘Last Dance’ sees Taylor offering up three new tracks that blend a more straightforward dancefloor house-based aesthetic with a curiously introspective and wistful edge.

‘Last Dance’ kicks proceedings off with what’s easily this EP’s most gentle and airy offering as glittering synth arpeggios add a dreamy edge to phased keyboard stabs and gliding, featherlight hi-hats and kicks, the entire track conjuring up a swooning atmosphere that calls to mind a more stripped-back take on Caribou in places. By contrast, ‘Lately’ gets far more upfront and club-friendly, sending jacking house snares rattling against deep funky analogue bass runs and flamboyant disco synth-string stabs as ghostly female soul vocal fragments nicely counterbalance the more mechanistic impulses without losing the sense of tightly flexing momentum. Finally, ‘Close The Door Behind You’ closes this EP with it’s most dark-hued offering as eerie Detroit synth shades play off phat garage-y bass flanges and gritty shuffling house rhythms, the entrance of bent vocal echoes adding to the sense of tightly-wound tension. More characteristically intriguing skewed house styles from XXXY on an EP that doesn’t disappoint.

Share.

About Author

A dastardly man with too much music and too little time on his hands

Leave A Reply