- As the ranks of hybrid club music producers continue to swell, introducing ever-more complex combinations of genres, Fade To Mind, one of this loosely defined scene's most influential labels, is still championing simplicity. You could trace this back to the earliest releases on its sister label, Night Slugs, which were both a bold synthesis of different styles and models of total efficiency. On Fade To Mind's latest record, NA's Cellar, elements of grime, R&B, Jersey club and video-game music are channelled into five subtly menacing tracks that stay focussed while processing many different ideas.
NA is Daniel Pineda, one half of Nguzunguzu, a key Fade To Mind act. Both solo and in collaboration, Pineda likes to work a couple of elements—say, a ballroom beat and a grime synth melody—into fresh compounds, his uncluttered productions affording him space in the mix to use reverb as a key compositional tool. Cellar applies this template to five tracks that vary in rhythm if not mood.
"Brass Claim" is the most basic and also the least charming, its dead-eyed horn sample and stuttered kick pattern losing the raw exuberance of the Jersey club tracks it's based on. The more convincing "Cellar Theme" and "Menace" are 133 and 144 BPM, but you'd probably dance to them half-time, as though they were ominous hip-hop instrumentals. "Definite Sentence," the EP's best track, is a master class in effects automation. There isn't much to it—a stuttered drum pattern, a dive-bombing bassline—but Pineda constantly tweaks the wet/dry dial on the reverb, dropping the track into a temporary space before setting it back on its path. "NA In A Mood," the closer, encapsulates the EP's themes, just without a steady beat. Cellar's vaguely dystopic tone ultimately loses some potency, but Pineda has enough conviction in his ideas to make this yet another example of what he and Find To Mind excel at.
TracklistA1 Cellar Theme
A2 Brass Claim
B1 Menace
B2 Definite Sentence
B3 NA In A Mood