Suzanne Kraft - What You Get For Being Young

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  • Dublab DJ Diego Herrera began releasing tracks as Suzanne Kraft back in 2011, favoring a sample-based nu-disco sound. But as the project progressed, he began to let in more space and more varied instrumentation, even venturing into pretty, beatless material. Recently, Herrera relocated from LA to Amsterdam, and, for a time, it looked like he was also fishing around for new aliases. The past few months have seen him release tracks as just Diego and, to simplify things further, D. But he returns to his Suzanne Kraft moniker for his second album on Jonny Nash's Melody As Truth label. From the beginning, What You Get For Being Young seems to seek a balance between Herrera's early beat tracks and his later, more languid productions. Gaseous smears of brass introduce "Body Heat," before Herrera fills in the space with gentle metallic thrums. "Bank" sports a kick and the most pronounced beat on the album. But rather than act as the track's driving force, the drum is more of a maypole, with Herrera wrapping a thin, fluttering guitar line, hi-hat figure and gossamer synth around it. While it has a relaxed shuffle, "One Amongst Others" is sparse to the point of seeming unfinished. As Being Young moves into its second half, it reveals that Herrera isn't so much interested in splitting the difference between his previous work as striking out for new spaces. At times, the album sounds like two others from this year, Max D's Boost and Prins Thomas's Principe Del Norte, albeit not so much in sound as intent. Pushing against notions of their previous work and club-friendly fare in general, these producers traveled deeper into their own minds, returning with abstract yet moving music that avoids the trappings of the dance floor. There's a nimble 5/4 beat underpinning "Scripted Space," but it's buried so deep beneath the layers of digital keys and guitar as to be almost subliminal. "Zé" might be the best iteration of Herrera's newfound head music. Deep and meditative bass tones swell in and out of range at the start of the six-minute track, before mixing with treated piano and electro-acoustic outbursts that Herrera twists and flips across the stereo field. The three components couldn't be more different, yet he makes them all coexist as the slow waves return at track's end. At the end of Being Young, "Further" is dreamy with a fidgety middle section. Herrera then nudges the track back towards the ambient for the finale, showing just how comfortable he's become with his maturity.
  • Tracklist
      01. Body Heat 02. Bank 03. One Amongst Others 04. Fragile 05. Zé 06. Scripted Space 07. Further
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