- Colourful house from an exciting new producer.
- April is a big month for Studio Barnhus. In a couple weeks Kornél Kovács, one of the label heads, releases Stockholm Marathon, his second album, and before then we get this new EP from Bella Boo, one of the most promising new artists not only on Studio Barnhus, but in house music in general. Gabriella Borbély, who had DJ'd regularly in Stockholm long before she started producing, released her first record with the label, Fire, at almost this exact point last year, and it's tempting to think that the timing isn't a coincidence. Borbély's music is the embodiment of spring—she works with vibrant colours, upbeat moods and rich arrangements that could soundtrack a blooming garden shot in time-lapse.
In the vein of DJ Koze, Matthew Herbert and some of her fellow Studio Barnhus artists, Borbély also likes to offset niceness with weirdness. "Álom," a downtempo cut with twinkling organs at its core, achieves this with Daft Punk levels of vocoder on the warped vocals. There's also something a little sinister about the dialogue in "Barak" ("I'll be anything you want me to be"), which is otherwise a riotous house track with elements of jazz, funk and swing. "The Hours" plays it the straightest, but not to its detriment: it's the EP's standout, a gorgeous mixture of keys, strings and sax that deserves to stick around for festival season. There is a little wonkiness with the return of the same coarse synth line from last year's excellent "Is It Rude To Wear My Shades," but the track, like lots of what Borbély has done so far, is really something to luxuriate in.
TracklistA1 The Hours
B1 Álom
B2 Barak