- The latest release on Sleep Is Commercial's Limited series comes from Fedon, AKA label co-founder Andrea Ferlin and Donald Mezmeric. SIC has often favored extended, floor-friendly productions, and Fedon truly go the distance with Modern Mantras, a vinyl-only EP whose two tracks each stretch out past the 20-minute mark. It would be easy to seem over-indulgent with such running lengths, but much to their credit, the duo stays mostly on point, employing in each track a sparse, tech-y house groove, a couple of prominent 303 patterns and a bunch of tripped-out effects.
"Modern Mantra," with its spacey minor-key jazz licks and acid lines sat atop a straightforward 4/4 foundation, feels like the more refined long-form effort. But I prefer "Mandragola" on the flip, with all its tight, funky drum work and jaunty dabs of psychedelia. There's a three-minute beat-less section midway through that is probably too long for anything aside from home sessions, but the sections either side of it are rhythmically different. DJs will be thankful that each is about seven or eight minutes long, as there's enough of a difference between them (the first half has more 303 action, while the second is a bit less busy) to afford each its own opportunity in the mix.
Tracklist A Modern Mantra
B Mandragola