- Quartet Series is a label with a sharp conceptual focus. Each year it puts out four records with a single theme, the releases united in imagery rather than sound. The Dutch label is in the midst of its second series, which is focused around bodybuilders, with track titles to match. The same model posed for all four covers, and each record is split into a "dick side" and a "butt side." But you don't need to know any of that to appreciate Macho Culture by Kuzma Palkin, whose brand of house is eccentric enough to make an impression.
The Russian producer, who has a raft of aliases, has previously appeared as Kuzma Palkin on the oddball Moscow label Gost Zvuk. Macho Culture is Palkin's most straightforward dance floor release yet, but it's still peculiar. Take the title track: it's undeniably banging, but it could make you scratch your head. The hi-hats are sharp but random, though the bassline is so catchy that it doesn't matter what's going on around it. Pairing a throaty low-end with intricate percussion, it could be what a Bristol producer Lurka or Batu would sound like if they ended up on Perlon.
Minimal house is an obvious influence on the EP. The clacking snares of "Krepkiye Bitsepsy" are a dead ringer for Binh's recent tracks, while even the Chicago house saunter of "Proper Sauna Chill" features dizzy drum patterns. Palkin's work is never what it seems on the surface. "Muscle Mass Increase," a stripped-back track with the EP's most persistent bassline, is eventually swallowed up by velveteen synths that would make an ambient producer blush, just one pleasantly surprising moment on an EP packed with them.
TracklistA1 Macho Culture
A2 Muscle Mass Increase
B1 Proper Sauna Chill
B2 Krepkiye Bitsepsy