System Error launches its brand-new sub-label VARIANT with a statement – not a whisper – and Koloah’s “Pacific Orbital EP” delivers exactly the kind of intent-defining sound you’d hope for on a debut catalogue number. Leading the charge is “Cosmin”, a track that instantly maps out the label’s direction: emotional futurism, razor-edged functionality, and electro charged with actual feeling rather than empty posture.
“Cosmin” opens with wide, misty pads that feel almost suspended in cold air, before subtly broken beats begin to form beneath. Then the acid arrives – not as a gimmick, but as a glowing thread that pierces the track’s melancholy, tugging it forward with a kind of soft inevitability. Everything here moves in fluid arcs: the pads sigh, the 303 flickers like underwater bioluminescence, and the groove shuffles rather than stomps. It’s melancholic, yes, but never defeated. Emotional, but never sentimental.
The magic of “Cosmin” lies in how Koloah balances scale and intimacy: it’s a track that could close your eyes or lift your head, send you floating into orbit or sinking into the Pacific’s midnight zone – both journeys feel possible, maybe even simultaneous. A proper opener, a proper statement, and a perfect way for VARIANT to define itself from release number one.
Words by Holger Breuer
Torture the Artist 