- "Functional" isn't necessarily a pejorative descriptor when it comes to dance music, and Nicole Moudaber's recent output on Drumcode is a fine example of what can be wrung from familiar frameworks. The Lebanese-born producer collaborated with Victor Calderone earlier this year on two tracks for Drumcode that reconciled cold emotion with tech-y twitches, and now the Sonic Language EP continues her trend of infusing even the most circular and static tools with internal motion.
In "The Road to Transformation," stuttering percussion skulks around the 4/4 backbone while hi-hats are smoothed out to form a fine mist. You can't decipher precisely what the vocal hook is going on about so nervously, but regardless, it gets shouted down by an intrusive garble before returning for more confusion. "Sonic Language" in comparison is more skippy and determined. After fives minutes of slinkiness, a welcome breakdown of slip-n-slide synthesizers brings to mind a gaudier Sigha. Neither tracks offer much in the way of innovation (and nothing on Drumcode is going to reinvent the wheel, anyway), but that doesn't mean they won't be effective when the lights are down and a fog machine is cranked up.
Tracklist 01. Sonic Language
02. The Road To Transformaton