- Forward-thinking happy hardcore? Blissed-out gabber? Trance? It's all here.
- C.Z.'s new EP for Evar Records, John Frusciante and Aura T-09's label, pulls from a full palette of genres, including trance, happy hardcore, jungle and gabber. The Los Angeles producer's repertoire is as versatile as you'd expect from that description—he's a nimble producer versed in making rap, pop, jungle, and more under the C.Z. name and others. The through-line on this EP are synth leads that bleed saccharine melodies, balancing the fast, often distorted kick drums. It's as if Heat Index left a bubblegum hyperpop world to find habitation on a grim, dirty planet.
The EP hits listeners with an endorphin rush from the get-go. The first track "Midnight" opens with a euphoric trance intro that's easy on the ears, before blasting us with gritty 160 BPM kicks and an ultra-bright synth lead. The title track marks a sharp turn, defined by a flighty but subdued subdued jungle-influenced rhythm. It's gentler than the rest, though early IDM stabs and ambient pads create a gratifying texture.
That reprieve is only brief, but the other faster tracks are still complex and unpredictable. "Retrograde," for example, fools us into thinking we're in for peak time gabber before a wispy female voice starts cooing over the chaos, placing it more in trance territory. The final track, "Radial Lens," is a perfect send-off, as slow breakbeats harmonize with a peachy synth lead. The EP is pure, neon-streaked brain candy, but any of these cuts could find their way into a hardcore, peak-time techno or trance set, a near-perfect balance of gut-punching low end and fluffy, cotton candy texture.
Tracklist01. Midnight
02. Heat Index
03. Hurricane
04. Retrograde
05. Radial Lens