Seawash: Pantomime EP (Delsin)

Seawash is an oddball signing for Delsin, kicking off apparently yet another off-shoot of the label (-e on the catalog number). I don’t know much about Seawash other than the act hails from Venice. The six tracks that comprise Pantomime are fairly varied and often juxtapose familiar dance music styles and sounds with downtempo sounds, samples, and/or treatments in unexpected ways. Many tracks sound like they’re built around triggered samples, like the R&B sounds that kick off “Revolution” before eventually expanding into something more dancefloor-friendly. “Close (Vox)” takes that a step further with a female vocal that sounds suspiciously like Aaliyah in cadence, the closest thing to a pop song you’ll find here. But I also enjoy the grey area of the title track, with its Field-like looped phrases cutting in and out of repitched drum loops, something that could very well have been an anthem but never quite made up its mind to be so. “Emeralds,” on the other hand, has a bit of a rock beat to it, moving at a faster clip and sounding like a shoegaze track that got sampled and overhauled into something wholly different. Topping it all off is the halfbeat groove of “Little John,” bristling with energy below the surface but anchored by its insistent snare strikes, a slightly melancholic finish to a rather eclectic set of tracks. I’m curious to hear more from Delsin along these lines, a nice change-up from the more typical (but equally solid) techno releases they’ve been unrolling lately.

Buy it: Delsin | iTunes | Boomkat | Bleep