- As comfortable with FM pop radio and hissy synth jams as he is with anthemic disco house, Stockholm producer Baba Stiltz's music is tied together only by sugary funk and a taste for novelty. ("The moment I have a formula, I'm probably not doing something good," he said a few years ago.) Is Everything uses house structures, but Stiltz's keyboards give some tracks an improvisational feel. The A-side—full of plastic sounds and big melodies—merges Stiltz's dance and pop instincts, but the results on "Snowwhite" and "Freeeze" land on a rootless DIY aesthetic that doesn't hit home. Only "Baby" has the charisma, however strange, to stick. On "Snowwhite," cheap organ notes begin by parping on every third beat, but later fan out into a hand-played, effects-smeared arpeggio. He goes even further out on "Baby," a sweet pop confessional with gelatinous synths and a yearning vocal.
Is Everything's B-side returns to Studio Barnhus's swung, sticky house sound. Stiltz applies one of his hallmarks, a sequencing accident where the beat seizes up and leaps onto an adjusted groove, to "XXX20003," weaving spontaneity and crayon-drawn squiggles into a more appealing tumble of percussion, hand drums and synths. "Are You Mad Cause I'm Not Mad" features some of Is Everything's best ideas. Cute arps, icy textures and Stiltz's pitch-bent vocals supply a satisfyingly strange coda for an EP whose embrace of imperfection yields uneven results.
TracklistA1 Snowwhite
A2 Baby
A3 Freeeze
B1 XXX200003
B2 Are You Mad Cause I'm Not Mad