A key element of on-the-rise Croatian collective and label low income $quad, Filip Scekic aka SZCH gained further exposure last year with the drop of his fantastic ‘Untitled‘ EP featuring the anthemic club hit ‘Untitled B‘ – notably charted by Objekt, who’s known for the extreme discernment of his selections – which inaugurated 777’s sister imprint LLL with both enthusiasm and drive, leaving us eager to see what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
Busy as ever in this beginning of the year, Filip has seen records segue into one another, consecutively dishing out a fine 12″ on newborn Dutch label Infinite Pleasure, a new diptych-built tape on LI$ and one of his finest platters to date, the excellent ‘Learning To Cope‘, out now via the mysterious Mexico via Montreal based Departures – offering up four desirable numbers of wistful funky house passed through scuzzy lo-fi filters.
‘Fukk U I’m Mad As Hell‘ sets the tone straightaway and when SZCH isn’t in a good mood, he likes to put on a combination of bouncy footwork, R2D2 cipher melodics and off-centre drum and bass patterns bursting out the MPC at spasmodic cadency. The groove is rousing and the vibe cottony, finely complimented by hovering pads unfolding in suspended motion.
Like some kind of free spirited anti-PC Music electronic mayhem, ‘Be The Bigger Man‘ strafes a head-on dissonant mishmash of kawaii-esque synth bleeps in addition to other weird high-pitched bits and bobs – seemingly sourced from some glitchy pokédex – whilst ‘PHD‘ returns to a more classic blend of piano-flecked Chicago house for a flirtatious jazzy session in some juke-joint’s smokey backroom.
The amazing ‘You Cannot Fast Travel From This Location‘ closes the EP under the best auspices possible, rapidly letting go of its omnipotent hammering kicks to better exude its fragrant nostalgia by way of heavily textured pads upon which cascades a downrush of sandy drums, corroded hats and foamy acid motifs tied by a fierce jacking groove. Lush as it gets.
That’s SZCH’s talent; marrying the obvious and the ambiguous, all not so easily emulated, somewhat exactly what the early house movement managed to create out of the wholly re-hashed disco tropes: spontaneous home-cooked dancey beats for the neighbours, with a sense of sharing and winsome intimacy that gives these four cuts all their flavour and irresistible appeal. SZCH’s going big.
Learning To Cope is out now, order a vinyl copy from Juno.
TRACKLIST
A1. Fukk U I’m Mad As Hell
A2. Be The Bigger Man
B1. PHD
B2. You Cannot Fast Travel From This Location
Discover more about SZCH and Departures on Inverted Audio.