In the wake of three well-rounded releases dropped on the ever faultless Antinote imprint, Nicolas Molina aka Geena returns this spring with a fourth episode of his spaced-out ventures on the Parisian outlet. Delving into the same hazed, dust-covered psychedelia that animated his previous EPs, Geena’s sound has since gained in dimension and intensity, extending Molina’s scope of action up to a very excursive approach.
Pure Ground Research is the work of a land-clearer, someone scouting the obscure nooks of dance music to rejoice surface people with a handful of shrewd and twisted ideas from underneath. Geena’s distorted aesthetics is all about druggy phases lacing up with straight shuffling rhythms, lysergic motifs interweaving like a chaplet of hallucinations. Take Tone Loc and its Andean groove, pan pipes blazing over a canopy of astral pads, the track is well representative of Molina’s special blend of organic solutions and synthetic chemistry, tribal-like programming and software-infused dancefloor science. A successful cut of cosmic house.
It’s this mix of traditional-sounding drums, bumpy bass lines and glazed phantasmagoria that makes Geena sound quite so unique. The third track of the EP Box of Exotica follows the same trail with another flute’esque main melody, adding a remote touch of human presence with a pinch of muted, Japanese-sounding vocal samples reminiscent of these dehumanized airport announcers. The landmarks of usual contemporary dance music have long vanished in these floes of electronic absurdism. Geena’s libertarian groove conquers.
Not to forget Minus Jam and its martial snares dissolving in a vertigo of submarine-like reverberations are a good evidence of Molina’s will to play on confusion and disorientation. The constant overlapping of awry, omnipresent bleeping chimes end up sinking you into a befuddling state of consciousness. The sound drift finds a more formulaic expression in the closing track Green Resident, a piece of elastic, saturated synth spirals spinning endlessly in a steadily growing vortex of wonky chords ; but one thing makes no doubt, like the blinding sun stamping its outlines upon your retina after you gazed at it for too long, Pure Ground Research won’t let loose on you for a while.
Pure Ground Research is out now on Antinote, order a vinyl copy from their web-store.
TRACKLIST
A1. Tone Loc
A2. Minus Jam
B1. Box Of Exotica
B2. Green Resident