Cardiff’s Haŵs label take a step down under and further into late night dancefloors for their 13th release, a six-track from Perth’s Guy Contact entitled ‘Euphoria Simulator‘.
To be filed within the ever-expanding wave of Australia’s trance-esque breakbeat dance music, ‘Euphoria Simulator‘ matches quality with plenty of his peers and some of our favourite Aussie producers, but Guy Contact also distances himself slightly from the pack with a light peppering of Wild West-styled sonic imprints among the otherwise deep-space themes.
The always-playful nature of the genre (and the overall high calibre of the EP) should stay any suspicions around this — think of a nightclub scene in Cowboy Bebop, more than a Spaghetti Western with 80’s spacesuits. For our premiere, we selected ‘Amphibian Pool‘ for its faithfulness to the EP’s title: gently grooving euphoria is the tactic here, muted acid lines pushing the track along between spacey synth sweeps and nimble drums.
Strangely-themed releases such as this rarely hit the mark, but, after solid contributions on Butter Sessions and Coymix, Guy Contact pulls off the concept admirably with an EP hitting all the right spots for a feel-good party mix.
‘Euphoria Simulator’ is scheduled for release 1 September via Haŵs. Order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Into The Blue
2. Nice 2 B Free
3. Whip Crack Cowboy
4. Euphoria Simulator
5. Amphibian Pool
6. Subaquatic Jungle