- I have to admit I wasn't as taken with Steven Tang's 2013 LP on Smallville, Disconnect To Connect, as most people appeared to be. Certainly, it had its moments ("Heat Burst," "Sunspot," Potential Light"), but generally its spacey atmospherics never quite resonated with me. The same, however, can't be said for his follow-up EP on the Hamburg label. Across three sonorous deep house cuts, Leaving The Physical World sees Tang employ a more immediately vivid style.
The title track begins in uncomplicated fashion, sending orchestral synths soaring across snapping snares and a lurching bassline. It's a beautiful track, made so by the gentle grandeur of the lead line. "Mystic Ritual" is also spearheaded by a dominant synth line, though here the chords sit low, their shadowy hum murmuring atop heavy kicks. Swaying pads and lightning stabs join the party further on, but again it's the simple resonance of the lead that carries the record. "Reality We Make" is an end-of-the-night number that glues gorgeous firefly flickers to a bed of cymbals and sauntering percussion.
TracklistA1 Leaving The Physical World
B1 Mystic Ritual
B2 Reality We Make