- Father, Son & Holy Ghost caps off a year that may have been Aus Musc's strongest in recent memory and Paul Woolford's least impressive. So it's something of a curveball that these three tracks make decent use of the sounds that Heaven & Earth and Mother & Child expressed less convincingly. Where those records used string arrangements and progressive house tropes to uninspired effect, this EP strikes a better balance between emotional excess and evocative dance music.
This largely comes down to a more nuanced touch with melody and Woolford not overselling the non-electronic sounds. A booming, electro-esque beat gives "Father" a satisfying 120-BPM bounce, while a modest 303 line anchors the slow-swelling string arrangement to its resonant notes. Compared to the overwrought "Mother & Child," the track is a masterclass in producing with atmosphere and restraint. The two B-side cuts, "Holy Ghost" and "Son," approach the A-side's ideas from different angles. The former is in turns hard-hitting, weightless, aggressive and abstract, but the way Woolford moves between those modes can be jarring. "Son" is a beatless rework of "Father," which puts the layers of strings on full display. The new depth and subtlety Woolford has found in those sounds is palpable here, and it's a major reason why these tracks work as well as they do.
TracklistA1 Father
B1 Holy Ghost
B2 Son