There’s a moment in every artist’s arc where the known begins to dissolve – not in rejection, but in renewal. With “The Twisted Maze EP”, Reflex Blue, the moniker of Australian-born, Berlin-based Cooper James Fraser, traces that very line. Known for his elegant rave revivalism – equal parts Kalahari psychedelia, Craigie Knowes swirl, and Limousine Dream elegance – Fraser has become a trusted architect of emotionally charged, trippy progressive house. But here, on his second outing for his own RB Select label, the formula melts. The frequencies bend. The edges fray. And something weirder, sharper, and far more personal emerges.
“Racoon Saloon” opens like a twitch in the subconscious – slinky and unstable, laced with paranoia. The garagey swing stutters forward under a bassline that doesn’t walk so much as wobble, balancing between bounce and breakdown. Overhead, a bent synth line weaves like a nervous thought circling back on itself, never quite resolving. It’s minimal, yes – but with just enough instability to keep your feet honest.
Then the tone lightens – barely. “”Got D’Funk” on the A2 is cheekier, funkier, but no less sly. A vocoder sample creeps in like a grin behind mirrored shades. The rhythm is stiff but infectious, riding a tech-funk backbone with flashes of bleep-era mischief. It’s part 2002 alien house, part modern groove study – nodding toward classic Warp releases but shaped for today’s twitchier dancefloors. There’s no need for drops when the details do the talking.
Flip the wax and the B1, “Freestyle Groove”, pulls us deeper into the undercurrent. Here, Reflex Blue drags the groove through darker circuitry. A distorted male vocal mutters from a place just out of reach, while the lead synth writhes with that unmistakable UK paranoia – moody but controlled, tense but never chaotic. It’s the track you slide into when the club has gotten sweatier, the lights lower, the threshold of the night begins to blur.
Then comes the closer – “Destination”, a slow-motion chugger for the wonky hours. Vocoded whispers drift like ghosts over a perfectly restrained kick, while a twisted lead line unfurls in loops that hypnotize rather than demand. It’s a track that doesn’t escalate – it entangles. Weird in all the right ways. The kind of tune that locks into place at 4AM when the brave ones remain.
“The Twisted Maze EP” is more than a left-turn. It’s a recalibration. Reflex Blue doesn’t abandon the emotion and intricacy that made his name – he refocuses them through a dirtier, moodier lens. This EP feels not like a side project, but like a clearing of space – a way to make room for instinct, impulse, and risk.
If Reflex Blue’s early records were about reclaiming the forgotten beauty of trance, “The Twisted Maze” EP is about staying with the strange and finding something human inside it.
Words by Pasha Pliskin
Torture the Artist 