"This is a tactile EP, which ticks more than your average number of boxes"
Despite Glaswegian imprint Craigie Knowes‘ furious release schedule of modern dance music there’s no sign of a drop in quality. This time Manchester’s No Moon is tapped for 3 innovative cuts of electro-infused floor shakers on a hyper-relevant disc for 2019’s sound; a tasteful amalgam weaving restlessly between deep house, acid, breakbeat and electro.
A-side opener ‘Breakpoints‘ is accurately named: juddering oscillations of bass are routinely split apart by breakbeat touch-points. Driven forward by an almost half-time snare, it heaps up on swagger between the tactically deployed breaks. Backing directly onto this is ‘aoe_advancing’ which fits into the same mould, flirting with tropical deep house diced up with on-the-beat electro snares before leaping into spaced-out breaks for a spell — a one-track equivalent of being caught in indecisiveness over which room to be in.
The titular track steals the show with full, emphatic basslines thundering through a deceptively complex drum pattern, 1080p-style synth leads and a sparing — but perfectly-so —two-tone acid jitter. It is hands-up euphoria, a crisp breaking wave on wax, a definite draw for those looking for soulful yet wild dance music.
Although electro is summoned in all the genre’s typical characteristics (even the robotic voice sample can be heard on ‘Breakpoints’) it is offered with the kind of genuine originality that is getting scarcer and scarcer as more and more are drawn to the allegedly gold-paved streets of electro.
It’s hard to decide whether this originality is as a result of No Moon’s innovative production — such as the half-time stuttering drums of ‘Breakpoints’ — or thanks to the tasteful merging of similar genres to create new results.
Regardless, this is a tactile EP, which ticks more than your average number of boxes — a solid reflection on the best of today’s multi-genre dancefloors — and a breath of fresh air for a genre which is fast becoming stifled.
‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ is scheduled for release 6 May 2019. Order a copy from Red Eye.
TRACKLIST
A1. Breakpoints
B1. aoe_advancing
B2. Where Do We Go From Here?
Discover more about No Moon and Craigie Knowes on Inverted Audio.