EP review: Soiree 'Future Ambience EP'

Artist: Various
EP: Future Ambience
Label: Soiree
Release date: 23/02/15

Future Ambience is the newest EP from Soiree - a Detroit record label which can tend to fly under the radar. Not so with this EP, which features the main force behind Soiree records, Drivetrain (a.k.a Derrick Thompson), as well as long time Soiree member Rennie Foster, plus Santonio Echols and Hideyoshi.

Divetrain starts it all off with sexy summertime beauty This Love, its bouncy bassline and offbeat percussion giving it an old school groovy vibe. With the delectably light vocals and sultry repetitive piano riff, the track emits a happy, goodtime ambience. Mountgrooves then aggregates with the previous song as Santonio Echols brings us another sunkissed track full of simple, relaxed elements. Stunning synchronisation of melody and rhythm makes Mountgrooves both relaxing and dance inducing at once. Chilled house at its finest.

The third track then takes the EP into a darker direction with Rennie Foster doing what he does best, infusing his intense underground sound into Just Begun. The use of syncopated percussion, however, steers the track away from an all-consuming dark impression and adds a livelier ‘techy' dimension. The EP is then completely taken into the twilight hour with Hideyoshi's Alpha Decay. We come full circle as the dominant 4/4 kick heard in This Love makes a return here, but the summer vibe is replaced with an intense and sinister feel due, heavily, to the the ‘trippy' overtones played continuously throughout. An impassioned and minimal end to a fantastically diverse EP.

Buy it here.

WORDS | Katie Goodman