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12"
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K7 444EP
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London outfit Kassian continue their broadly evolving yet highly detailed journey through and beyond sound towards something ever more expansive. Their second release for !K7 Records comes in the wake of creating a dedicated hardware-forward studio in a Northeast London container complex, where they have the freedom to interlink their machines. This renewed focus brought them to Supercontinent EP, named for the ancient geological era when Africa and South America were joined as Pangea. A reformulation of rhythmic ideas inspired by South African Amapiano and South American Baile Funk governs the two hemispheres of the record. The pair examine and deconstruct dancefloor material, eschewing 4/4 for interlocking shaker patterns, searing acid lines, cracking breakbeats, and vocal samples in Zulu and Brazil Portuguese. The immediacy of the restless rhythm and bass-led funk of "Yena" (the word Yena translates to "he/him /man") forms a sweet spot where double-time and half-time can coexist. "Yami" ("mine" in Zulu) is a slinkier proposition which sheds prominent percussion in favor of a weighty, fluid, acid-informed bassline undulating from below. An ascending percussive riff marks the arrival of "Pulgueiro," followed closely by break beats and the nostalgia of distinctly British acid electro; it is an intentionally future-forward retelling of a vintage sound, replete with a mind-melt breakdown of rave pads. A dubbed-out groove dominates the bottom-heavy "Sistema" -- a groovy, steady roller that chugs and propels and chugs with head-nod hypnotism through an intricately minimalistic approach.
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12"
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K7 430EP
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Within the transformations of their meticulous processes, London duo Kassian become a vessel for alchemy: filtering and distilling scores of stems, samples and layers until something richer and more complex than the sum of its parts emerges. Uncomfortable in any solitary genre, and at the midpoint of somewhere unexpected and uncharted, the pair describe their sound as "almost techno." Since their debut release in 2018, Kassian have drifted leftwards into heavier, more abstract territory, harnessing their individual skills for working in the small pockets and painting the whole cloth of the canvas. In their first outing for !K7, Phase Two EP, the Roland System 1 synth is the throughline as they painstakingly piece together sketches, turning high hats into kick drums, capturing the resonance of percussion and drift further into each other's heavy-hitting sonic realms. "X-303" recontextualizes the sci-fi inspiration of its name, forging a new style of interstellar acid. A driving kick drum holds steady through a track which oscillates between contrasts: from eerie, suspenseful pads and distorted string sounds, to a minimalistic groove accented with double-time drums and mechanistic pulses. "Tabla" reduces a distinct Latin rhythm down to its essence, and is propelled by a thick and distended bass loop. Its hypnotic groove combines the human and the virtual with a glitching vocal sample and the juddering of strummed guitar strings, highlighted by the percussive hits of its namesake instrument. The pair characterize "Prelude" as "a Frankenstein kind of monster." Constructed around a radio sample of a legend of the scene, it is a sleek and incremental gradation of shades, with micro layers from their palette of sounds rising and falling, blending and twisting with no obvious lead or bass. Repurposing the same drums as "X-303", the EP's final track "Patterns" was inspired by Kassian's earliest incarnations of live performances, and it unashamedly captures the peaks of communal moments, rounding out the EP with an epic take on deep and techy house.
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12"
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HEIST 034EP
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Kassian is the brainchild of Joe Danvers-McCabe (Danvers) and Warren Cummings (Warren Xclnce). Both are regulars in the underground and wider-reaching London scenes, and the whole EP breathes soul and funk with that dance floor punch you've come to expect from Heist. The Premise EP delivers three originals, each with a hint of soulful, old-school New York house, but with a fresh style and unique character. Finishing the EP is an eccentric and vibey DJ Nature remix. 180 gram pressing, limited full cover.
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