Hizatron: HZA EP (Wigflex)

This 3-tracker from Nottingham-based Hizatron is pretty hard to beat. Ostensibly it lives in the world of tech house, but there’s something about the sounds herein that cross over into other areas of dance music. The raucous, redlined synths of “Telescope Dope” recall the herky-jerky fun of hybrid dubstep, but the track has the syncopated stride of minimal techno and tech house. “Executive Ball Scratcher” has the bleep of classic Daniel Bell but with an odd combination of 4/4 time against triplets in its stuttering bass kicks, bringing to mind the most square sounds of unpredictible acts like Zomby. Its jaunty melodic patterns are as lively as they are mischievous, lending a surprising malleted sound to the mix. The final track, “Klondyke,” is awesomely detailed with percussive ricochet, all rim shots, mallets, snares and claps scattered through the mix against a continuous buzzing synth bass. It only gets better from there: a weird synth that sounds vaguely like a harmonica is introduced and blows through a number of strange broken chords in time with the bassline while effects are piled high on the various rhythm tracks. Hizatron fits a lot into these 3 tracks, some of the more clever dance music I’ve heard recently. It’s refreshing to hear someone breaking out of the techno/tech house mold with something genuinely exciting. It puts a big fat smile on my face!

Listen to samples: Boomkat

Buy it: iTunes | Boomkat | Amazon