- A new Vancouver talent arrives.
- Sam Scott is as likely to DJ happy hour at a steakhouse as headline a locals-only rave, which means he hasn't made waves outside Vancouver yet.. Even so, he's a name worth paying attention to. His scant output as Slim Media Player has been enticing, with long, hypnotizing tracks that bring disco's thump to the dazed sound of Vancouver house. Quicksand is his first solo EP, living up to the promise of his two previous tunes on Pacific Rhythm.
"Quicksand" and "Mouthfeel" are like hallucinations of disco laid over chunky house. "Quicksand" features samples—vocals, woodwinds and vamping chords—that shimmer amid the bone-dry rhythm section, while funky guitar licks and zig-zagging basslines lurk on "Mouthfeel." At almost nine minutes, "Memory Bias (Nostalgia)" is full of the subdued, warmed-over melodies that defined the early Mood Hut records, though something about Scott's approach is particularly fascinating, especially with its whisper-quiet arrangement. "Tchüss," with its big bassline, slippery chord progression and no kick drum, is the odd one out, but it's just as powerful as the other tracks on Quicksand, a record that conjures the atmosphere of the early hours of a candle-lit loft party.
TracklistA1 Quicksand
A2 Mouthfeel
B1 Memory Bias (Nostalgia)
B2 Tchüss