- Mistress Recordings, the house-leaning sublabel of DVS1's Hush imprint, hasn't received anything less than a 4 from us. For the first listen or three to Daniel Jacques' Livet Efter Detta, the label's latest EP, I thought Mistress had finally hit a dip—if not in quality, exactly, than in the extensibility of its aesthetic. The label isn't in the banger business, but Jacques' four-tracker—his first under his own name since 2005—burrows further into atmosphere than their previous releases had dared go.
With a bit more time (and the opportunity to hear the pressure it created on a dance floor), Livet Efter Detta revealed itself as another excellent EP that continues Mistress's impressive run. "End Of My World" isn't much more than a disco-y beat loop, Rhodes and sighs, but like so much of the EP, the pleasure is in the details: those tinny guitar licks, that bit of hand-drumming, the open hi-hats that cut like Japanese steel. It's dark, but in retrospect it's the EP's moment of levity—the rest is starker and more claustrophobic. "Before I Begin" is less funky than lurching, with little piano twinkles and woozy pads reinforcing its seasick vibe. The flipside tracks, "Today We Move" and "Emotion Devotion," rattle and bang, with bite that feels closer to techno than the house Mistress is theoretically focussed on. That ambiguity of form, coupled with the subtlety of the production, is what ultimately makes Livet Efter Detta an alluring release on an already standout label.
TracklistA1 End Of My World
A2 Before I Begin
B1 Today We Move
B2 Emotion Devotion