- Ben Vedren played at Concrete, his home club in Paris, at least ten times last year. In other words, he's a reliable DJ. He's had a supporter in Cabanne for years and has production credits on Perlon, which should give you some idea of the subtlety of his productions. Like other minimal heads, his tracks disguise a lot of activity within steady yet gentle grooves. MXA is marked by considered, nuanced sound design, drifting by like a half-remembered dream. It makes its case with a whisper rather than a scream, combining suggestive yet abstract moods with drums soft and deep as a heartbeat.
"MXA" and "MXB" have more character than your average minimal track. The latter has a particularly rich atmosphere, where rousing strings rise to the foreground only to be jerked from view. Men shout and metal clinks somewhere off in the distance, while the second half sounds like spring slowly drifting into an open window, with twinkling glockenspiels and rustling leaves. The other side has a straighter groove and is more upbeat, but there's still a lot going on. Modulating scribbles of sound dart between echoes and whispers, creating a teeming cyborg environment. It's the sort of track that slips subliminally into the mix, shifting the atmosphere and swing without emphatically announcing its presence.
TracklistA1 MXA
B1 MXB
B2 MXB (Lamento)