- For most of his career, Leif's house style has focussed more on melody and texture than rhythm. But as the Freerotation affiliate's star has begun to rise, his music has shown different faces. Last year's "Life Through Analogies" explored broken beat flavours, and the RA Recommended Taraxacum LP was loose and exploratory. This EP for Galdoors might be his most adventurous yet—though, as ever with Leif, it's adventure with a friendly face.
On the A-side, the drums take centre stage. There's something deliriously unbalanced about "Macro Beat"'s dense, latin-inflected groove; it's easy to lose your place in the tumble of woody percussion, and the unruly synth squiggles halfway through add to the chaos. "Moment Beat" packs a similar dynamism into a taut, shuffling swing. Its tight focus is gradually blurred by the onset of twinkling arps, before the whole thing snaps back into focus for a propulsive final drop.
The B-side loosens its focus on rhythm, though not entirely. "Tumbler" rests on a firm house thud, but everything else about it is teasingly strange. There's the stuttering high-end percussion, which builds into intense 16th-note barrages before evaporating, and the Rhodes lines beat-repeated into angular shapes. (For more beat-repeat wizardry, check Taraxacum highlight "Painted Cakes Satisfy Hunger.") The untitled closer is gorgeous ambient. Leif, it turns out, is brilliant at that, too.
TracklistA1 Macro Beat
A2 Moment Beat
B1 Tumbler
B2 Untitled