Like many artists from the inimitable Hessle Audio camp, Elgato is not a man who favours quantity over quality. Turning in a grand total of four singles over the last four years, this included, restraint is evidently as crucial to him in releasing music as it is to producing it.
It is this restraint that has made Elgato’s formidable presence in the UK bass music underground so peculiar; in a landscape of maximalist producers whose compositions wouldn’t dare linger in a loop too long, tunes like “Zone” and “Blue” are conspicuous for their steadfast commitment to the charms of a great refrain.
Wasting no time, A-side “Links“ cuts right to the chase with a strong kick, tightly cut hi-hats, and a psychedelic male vocal reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt’s Kafkatrax output. Soon after, the vocal is sent into a spiralling echo, ushering in Elgato’s signature warm, sub-rattling bassline and the tune’s driving church-bell hook. A blunted whine on the opportune offbeat sets the whole thing alight dazzlingly after the halfway point, before the tune is stripped back again, piece by piece.
B-side “Sun“ fits more neatly into Elgato’s existing body of work: a slightly more patient slow-burner, synths fade in for over a minute, gliding the tune into focus before discreetly making their way into the background, not unlike STL‘s work. Much more suited to home listening, Sun has a restrained, almost remedial quality to it that contrasts so deeply but so aptly with Links, leaving the single with a sense of coherence rarely achieved with the format.