Warsaw-based electronic producer Deam (real name Michal Lewicki) has already attracted support from the likes of Slugabed and Seiji for his broken dub-techno centred productions, and this debut download-only EP ‘Square Love’ on Polish bass label Concrete Cut offers up a six track appetiser of his sound. If opening track ‘Joint’ leans towards Martyn’s off-centre dub-techno explorations as blissful retro-Chicago synth pads wander beneath a lithe backbone of airy, garage-inflected snares and murmuring analogue synths, ‘Riot’ sees the tempos being wound right down for an ominous wander through devolved and fractured hiphop rhythms and buzzing sub-bass, only for things to suddenly accelerate back up into rattling garage-house rhythms, complete with chipmunk-esque pitched up soul vocal grabs. If the aforementioned track carries more than a hint of Bugz In The Attic’s two-step soul template, ‘Square Love’ sees things getting more dubbed out and brittle as delayed-out vocal samples float out over a fluttering backdrop of cracking rhythms and gauzy, smeared out synth atmospheres more akin to Hudson Mohawke, before ‘Pinch’ gets deep and dark, sending the relentless momentum of tumbling polyrhythms rolling beneath eerie female vocal stutters and bright gamecore synths, in what’s easily one of the most evocative moments to be found here. An impressive debut EP from Deam that’s well worth exploring.
Chris Downton
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