- In the past, Blue Hour has sprinkled his pumping techno tools with euphoric melody. But recent releases pursued a '90s loop-techno sound to ever greater extremes of intensity. This new collaboration—along with a pair of gorgeous ambient cuts on a forthcoming solo record, The Midnight Sun—suggests that the British producer is letting some air back into the room. The project, a collaboration with A-JX called Tracing Xircles, remains rooted in the '90s. But it's the flipside of the '90s sound Blue Hour has previously explored—the chill-out room's yin to the rave's yang.
Drenched in reverb and grandiose melody, the EP slowly untethers as it goes. "Lost Illusions" is still just about techno, with a breakbeat-led groove clattering along below 120 BPM. The eight-and-a-half minute runtime might seem excessive, but the duo justify it with complex melodic shades of uplift and grand melancholy. "Aura 96 (Kino Mix)" takes us below 100 BPM, and its syncopated kick drum is almost lost in the clouds of synth strings and cascading background effects. "Gaia's Requiem" gives up on forward motion altogether, letting us float in a cool ocean of glimmering piano and synth. After all that raging techno, this retro zone-out was just what the doctor ordered.
TracklistA1 Lost Illusions
B1 Aura 96 (Kino Mix)
B2 Gaia's Requiem