- Berlin label Nous has a similiar approach to Opal Tapes and Werkdiscs, labels whose trippy eccentricities never totally derail their dance floor sensibility. (There's also the similarities in geometric, black-and-white artwork and shared artists.) Following a couple of Night Slugs-esque EPs, LA producer Jesse Pimenta (AKA Dreams) shoehorns his sound into the Nous aesthetic on Off The Grid, the label's first release of 2016. These five tracks land somewhere between Moiré's off-kilter machine funk and the kind of raw acid and electro sounds favored by Helena Hauff. But Pimenta never gets as weird as the former nor reaches the latter's intensity, which leaves Off The Grid's heady techno in a curiously muted daze.
When the music has particularly groove-centric goals—as it does on "Voyeur," "Red Veil" and "Night Cap"—the 120-something tempos and foggy atmospheres make for ideal companions to Pimenta's slick basslines. To be sure, those riffs are the defining characteristic of Off The Grid, so it's to the detriment of "Chain" and the title track that their bass sequences aren't so sharp. The variety they give the EP is welcome—especially the airy brightness that "Off The Grid" brings—but their lack of a strong focal point makes Pimenta's druggy, lo-fi schtick sound aimless.
TracklistA1 Chain
A2 Voyeur
A3 Red Veil
B1 Off The Grid
B2 Night Cap