- The rising Russian producer's latest LP puts a vibrant spin on house and techno.
- Gost Zvuk is an important label in Russian electronic music. The Moscow collective, whose name roughly translates to "state standards for sound," have put out a wide spectrum of styles. There are the conventional ones, like OL's Height Difference, released last year, that lean on house templates. Then there are the more unhinged, such as Yalta, by Pavel Milyakov (AKA Buttechno), that effectively do what they want, less confined by genre boundaries.
Gost Zvuk's latest LP, from the St. Petersburg artist Evgenii Fadeev (often known as Flaty but appearing here as AEM Rhythm Cascade), sits between those two extremes, demonstrating the label's broad scope. Fadeev wields several styles with confidence across the record. "Mimicore" has an electro-like energy. "Spiral" renders minimal and glitch in tasteful ways. "Partial Presence" has a half-step motion about it.
The house tracks, though, hold the album together. "Plaksa" is everything you'd want out of a 7 AM club closer, and reflects the core sound of the Gost Zvuk catalogue. If tracks like "Plaksa" and "L-Expo" form Litie's spine, subtle experimental tangents take the record up several gears. "Orange" is beatless techno with jazzy keys and wailing harmonies. The closer, "Emulsiya," further strips things away and explores ambient textures and loose rhythms. It's these little surprises that make the LP so compelling.
This is how Fadeev has worked on his past releases. His clever full-length New Suggestions never rested on one theme yet remained absorbing, while his dreamy 12th Isle release with Dices touched on house, ambient and experimental styles. On Litie, the Russian producer strikes out on his own with equally impressive results.
Tracklist01. New Day
02. Mimicore
03. Soap Water
04. Spiral
05. Razmetka
06. Serviz
07. L-Expo
08. Orange
09. Partial Presence
10. Volnushka
11. Plaksa
12. Emulsiya