- A brilliant EP of feel-good tracks inspired by the primal force of water (and raves).
- The centrepiece of Jennifer Loveless's new EP is a ten-minute psychedelic house romp "Backroll Buddy," built on a bed of recordings from various parties that the Canadian-in-Australia played or attended. It's striking how much these crowd sounds open up the spatial field of the song, thrusting you smack dab into the middle of an imaginary dance floor itself. The constant murmurs and bits of chatter lend it a microhouse vibe (think Bruno Pronsato), but the rollicking beat is one of the many infectious, assertive rhythms that define Water. The poignant sound of parties past is just one reason "Backroll Buddy" hits so hard—this is the kind of career-making EP that most artists could only hope for their second-ever record to sound like.
Water is an album-sized EP for one of Australia's greatest running labels, Butter Sessions. Designed as what Loveless calls a "frivolous" follow-up to last year's ambient leaning debut, it's anything but. Inspired by, you guessed it, water and the thrash of ocean waves, the EP is loaded with extended jams and brilliant melodic flourishes, built with aquatic and ocean-themed samples (waves, whales) that are so well incorporated you'll only hear them if you're looking for them.
Loveless has a taste for brisk but easygoing rhythms. This is dance music that takes the recent predilection for old-school breakbeat and trance records and smooths those sounds into something that moves with the horizontal sprawl of minimal and erupts into the melodic raptures of the Melbourne scene that Loveless calls home. You'll hear traces of Eris Drew in the irresistible, harpsichord-like melodies of "Syzygy (Scissor Me)," while the blissed out "Ecc" touches on bleep techno, embellished with blooms of bright, comforting synth.
Water's greatest quality is its unfailingly positive energy, only emphasized by the distinct lope of Loveless's grooves: that burrowing worm of a bassline in "Out/Under," or the way the melody interacts with the rhythm section on "Syzygy." The EP ends with another irresistible bassline in "B L U Y O U," which features a bopping filtered melody that sounds like it could have been surgically removed from a Discovery-era Daft Punk song. Warm and shimmering, Water is a record that doesn't just try to soundtrack the dance floor, but to capture its energy as well. You can hear the weight—and joy—of memories made and epiphanies had in these happy-go-lucky, festival-ready tracks, each more pleasurable than the last.
Tracklist01. Out/Under
02. Syzygy (Scissor Me)
03. ECC
04. Backroll Buddy
05. B L U You