- Catalonia's electronic music community is closely knit, and the Badalona-born Sau Poler (real name Pau Soler) seems to have all the usual connections, with John Talabot and the Hivern Discs crew among them. This is his second EP, after last year's A Soundless Echo, and it finds him fleshing out the house-meets-R&B sound of that record.
The best moments on Paradoxes Of Progress come when Soler presses the euphoria button. "Non-Plus Ultra" is a good example. He rolls sparkling keys and chimes, smooth bass and R&B chants into an enveloping blanket that's a pleasure to get lost in. "Illusion Of Time" achieves a similar, if more techno-leaning result by heaping vocal fragments, clicking percussion and sunny little melodies onto a monolithic bass groove.
Elsewhere, "For NYC" is what might happen if Boards Of Canada had a New Order-style Ibiza epiphany and went Balearic, while "Mental Invasion" is rote choppy garage. Closer "Juun," meanwhile, is an ambient wash that's punctuated rather prettily by woodblocks, tambourines and the by-now formulaic R&B-flavoured vocal shards.
TracklistA1 For NYC
A2 Non Plus Ultra
B1 Mental Invasion
B2 Illusion of Time
B3 Juun