- The Frankfurt wunderkind debuts on Spectral Sound with a record that showcases his strengths, but also has a few missteps.
- Ludwig Aaron Freimund Röhrscheid, or Ludwig AF, gave major club Messiah energy when he first arrived on the scene in 2019. With his long, flowing hair and tongue-in-cheek press shots, he even looked like he was ready to save club music. His records lived up to the image. He introduced us to a singular vision of dance music, where weightless IDM melodies merged with tech house swing, and swelling trance arpeggios bounced off of jungle breakbeats. 2022's career retrospective Air sounds almost paradigm-shifting—a record where the signifiers of '90s dance music are beamed back from a future where DJs don't have to think about mundane matters such as beat matching. Röhrscheid now returns with Halo for Ghostly International's club-focused Spectral Sound. This is a tantalizing pairing, a shift from a Frankfurt am Main novelty into the hallowed halls of one of dance music's most beloved catalogues. But the results are a mixed bag.
Let's start with the good. The back half of the EP bubbles with Röhrscheid's brand of club alchemy. Across Halo, he draws from UK dance music history, mixing his celestial melodies with the grumbling bass. Halfway through the garage-y "Ginko," the synthesizers burst like crocuses after the first spring rain into a neon bouquet He drops the drums, but keeps the heavy sub intact on "Whispered," where he turns he creates a miniature synthetic string symphony that unfolds at a snail's pace, each note drawn out to the point of implosion.
Dramatic and poignant, these tracks are Röhrscheid at his best. You can also hear whispers of his magic on the title track where he lays a gravity defying string melody over a breakbeat. But this disappears into the mix as he opts for a colossal breakdown filled with sadboi rave pads. For a producer who trades in nuance, this feels like going full imitation Bicep, pairing tear-jerking chord progressions with Printworks-ready drum programming. The skippy "Pippa" feels a bit like generic festival fare with its lovestruck vocal samples, muted chords, and drawn out breakdowns. These tunes aren't bad, and they'll probably become familiar as festival season rounds the corner. For a lesser producer, they might even be the sort of algorithm-breaking tracks that catapult an artist to stardom. But when you set the bar as high as Röhrscheid has, the EP falls somewhat flat, sounding gaudy next to the emotional whimsy of his other work.
Tracklist01. Pippa
02. Halo
03. Ginko
04. Octav
05. Whispered