Australian purveyors of fine beats, Conspiracy, welcome Tim Etzel to the label, the Mannheim-based producer offering up some sweet club treats on his Cotton Candy EP.
The EP gets moving from the word go, with the title track heading directly into an uplifting club vibe, playful keys and fizzing synth sounds having real fun making themselves known alongside a low-rolling M1 organ vibe. The synths have a sparkle to them, giving the track a gorgeous shimmer, all the while remaining firmly at club level. A great opening cut for the EP.
Bleepy business is the order of the day on Vaporrave, an excellent deeper outing which fuses the aforementioned bleeps with hints of acid and a stuttering synth run. Within a couple of minutes the break in the track allows a build-up to kick in, with all the sounds coming into focus and punching through the speakers with added luminosity. This is a superbly positive track, the separation between the low and high sounds allows for a really immersive experience and it’s just full of joy, definitely one to bring smiles to the faces on the dancefloor.
The final original track on the EP is Feel Like Dancing, which chugs along at a quick pace, the focus being more on the bassline here. The skippy beats and keys are more set back, giving an overall deeper mood to the vibe and creating a ‘heads-down-in-the-groove’ effect, which serves the EP well, after the two brighter opening cuts.
Closing the EP is Slow Life affiliate Paolo Mosca‘s remix of Cotton Candy, reworked in exceptional fashion. Switching the drums into a phased rattling style, the bass sits lower in the track and the acid is brought forward, with a gently moving pad adding the audio-glue to the mix. The staccato synth which comes through around the halfway mark nestles itself in with the other sounds expertly, all the sounds finding their own space and working together to create a remix of sublime quality.
This is an EP that cannot be recommended highly enough, it’s a 100% winner.
Tim Etzel’s Cotton Candy EP is available via Conspiracy.
Words by Al Bradley
Torture the Artist 