Italian label Hashplant welcome Club Midi resident Mihigh to the family for their seventh journey: a powerful two-tracker guaranteed to take listeners to seventh heaven. When it comes to producers exploring the wormhole of minimal techno, there are few who venture as deep into its darker crevices as Mihigh. It comes as no surprise then, that the ‘Casa Vargas’ EP is tainted with the Romanian artist’s signature addictively ominous aesthetic, rendering it the perfect weapon for late-hour selectors.
Today’s premiere, ‘Tiger Lilly’, takes the A1, setting the tone of the EP as dually enticing and unnerving. A weighty kick and harrowing synths instantly pull the listener into its heads down abyss, before shuffling hats intensify its already impending sense of doom. As the track zig-zags through multifarious textures and maddening atmospheres, its writhing aquatic bass lurks below, strengthening momentum. Foreground and background seem to blur into one, save from the moments where unintelligible vocals or a menacing riff lurch forward in the mix.
At a lengthy twelve minutes, lack of context begets the observation that the track tires easily. The sheer weight of ‘Tiger Lilly’s’ impact may be hard to grasp when listening to it on isolation, but when deployed on the dancefloor its effect is unquestionably palpable. The track’s arrangement favours extended transitions that stretch out its hypnotising loops, morphing them into realms to get lost in. On a good system and dark dancefloor, this is a sprawling minimal roller that will go far from unnoticed.
Flip it over and the same darker disposition prevails on the B side. ‘Going Nowhere’ is even more unsettling than its predecessor, venturing even further left-field with its razor sharp off-kilter percussion. Often times, experimentation comes at the expense of danceability, ‘Going Nowhere’ track’s gregarious bassline and muffled kick are proof that the two are not mutually exclusive.
On the whole ‘Casa Vargas’ is a standout EP that is refreshingly avant-garde. With two immaculately produced bombs, each suited to their own unique time and place, this is surely a release to jump on. Get your hands on it now.
Follow Hashplant
SoundCloud | Facebook
Follow Mihigh
SoundCloud | Facebook
