The follow up to his strong collaboration with Midland sees crooner-cum-composer Breach teaming up with 50Weapons stars Dark Sky on The Click/The Fallout EP.
Unashamedly club orientated, both tracks feature busy rhythms, chopped-up vocal snippets and basslines designed for you to feel rather than hear. A-side The Click is where you can best hear the two very different sides of this production coin. An approachable Bashmore-style bassline underpins dark, menacing synths and scatterings of white noise, whilst the sparsely used vocal hook smoothly segues you from driving, punchy beats to the aforementioned swirling, bouncy pads. It’s an accomplished track, and certainly not without allure, but you can’t help feeling like the starkly contrasting styles of the collaborators have been shoehorned into the track, rather than feeling completely cohesive and natural.
The other offering of this EP, The Fallout, is a much more fluid affair. Cheeky piano stabs give the track a throwback feel, and they open up with such reservation that there’s plenty of time for the groove to breathe, occasionally coughing up some really tight percussive flourishes. Ultimately the reward for this track, and indeed the whole EP, lies in the last two and a half minutes. Seemingly out of nowhere, those piano stabs take on a much more wonky persona, playing call & response with a fresh bassline. It’s great stuff – we just wish there was more of it
Sitting nicely amongst other offerings from Breach’s consistently charming Naked Naked label, this release – whilst unlikely to set the world on fire – will undoubtedly bring heat to any dancefloor.
Dark Sky & Breach – The Click / The Fallout (Drops Feb 11th)
Rating 7.5