- Lowtec has always been good at coloring outside the lines. Consider Workshop, the beautifully unconventional house label he runs with Even Tuell, or his RA Podcast from last year, a string of ghostly downtempo curios. Sword Of Light, a new EP by a mysterious outfit called The Hangout Project, is his latest curveball, not least because it appears on Out To Lunch, a label he founded in the mid '90s and whose last release (an excellent split with Marvin Dash) dropped in 2005.
While it's not clear who The Hangout Project actually is, Sword Of Light is straight out of Lowtec's playbook. Well, maybe not straight out—the title track, a kind of zero gravity footwork experiment, would sound as at home on Hyperdub as it would on Workshop. But despite the syncopation and soaring tempo (154 BPM), the details scream downtempo house—warbling chords, spacey keys, an ambient intro that swallows half the track. "The Bomb" sounds more familiar, with lazy chords and chirpy vocal samples layered over a chugging slo-mo groove. "Transfer" falls somewhere between the two, in tempo as well as style—this one is a lovely bit of cosmic house (at a DJ friendly 126 BPM) whose syncopated kick drum gives it a weightless, effervescent feel. Whether Out To Lunch is properly back or just stopping by is anyone's guess, but you have to hope there's more where this came from.
TracklistA1 Sword Of Light
B1 The Bomb
B2 Transfer