- Jamal Moss presents another debut for his Mathematics label—this time from Roche, who constructs three meditative deep house cuts from deceptively simple materials. "Sans Quimico" is the main attraction, a ten-minute slow-burner built around a lush arpeggiating riff and a busy, oddly plastic bassline. Additional layers—a halftime clap, snatches of vocal and guitar, periodic barrages of snare drum—are carefully added to create a texture of challenging density, an indistinct haze of detail that makes for hypnotic listening at home but would probably struggle to make impact on the dance floor.
Elsewhere, Roche's sound palette is defined, similarly, by a mild claustrophobia and an unusual mix of flatly synthetic elements and raw looped samples. "Lftl Eternal" opens with a gorgeous, splashy vibraphone loop and another spiralling bassline, before detailed hi-hat patterns surface, tugging gently at the seams of the pulse. When the kick drum enters it's a paltry thing, something of an anticlimax—but still, we build up a good head of steam before close. Finally, the title track is the most sun-kissed of the lot, but also the least convincing—not because of its mellifluous chords and light-fingered bassline, which slip down nicely, but due to its structure. It's a stop-start affair that lacks the smooth forward-motion found elsewhere.
TracklistA Sans Quimico
B1 Lftl Eternal
B2 Auragan