- For most of its decade-long run, Acido's output has been notably slow, something that might be explained by its proprietor's borderline superstitious A&R methods. "I cannot just pick any artist," Dynamo Dreesen told us in 2014. "It has to be someone I would meet naturally, who I cross paths with. I like his music, I like his style, I like his personality. Then it becomes an Acido record." Whether he's loosened this criteria is hard to say, but Acido has picked up the pace as of late, releasing four EPs per year instead of the usual one or two. The result has been an armful of good-but-not-great records from the once untouchable label, which makes their latest EP a welcome return to form.
Paradise Island comes from Karl Lukas Petterson, a Swedish electro artist also known as Luke Eargoggle. Its two tracks, "Paradise Island" and "I Travel The World," are essentially variations on the same idea. Both trundle along with leaden kicks and muddy synths, brilliantly offset by crystal clear twinkles of melody that occasionally cut through the mix. On both, a childlike voice eerily repeats the titular phrase. The chords are catchy, the sound design exquisitely imperfect. But as with Acido's best records, its the overall personality—at once campy and avant-garde—that makes these tracks so good.
TracklistA1 Paradise Island
B1 I Travel The World