- Rushing through trance, drum & bass and downtempo rhythms, the reunited duo's Trans-Europe Express of high-energy dance music styles is captivating from beginning-to-end.
- D. Tiffany and Roza Terenzi's debut album ends with a glossy bit of techno. where a deadpan voice lists European capitals while seductively asking: "Do you wanna ride?" It's a campy touch, like a first-time techno tourist's dream itinerary. But listening more closely to the song's nervous tics and excitable drums "Possession"—which even shares its name with a world-famous techno party—struck me as a more of a wry joke, like a weary DJ's schedule. The chosen cities (from Paris to Rome to Amsterdam) are appropriate, because listening to Edge Of Innocence is like party-hopping between European sounds du jour: keyed-up trancey techno, drum & bass, speaker-rattling electro and hurtling, high-octane breakbeats. These are all styles that the duo, together and apart, have championed over the last decade. Neither artist is even European—D. Tiffany from Vancouver, Roza Terenzi from Melbourne—but it's hard not to hear their impact on the ultra-psychedelic, high-BPM soundscape of the continent. Their debut album (and long-awaited reunion) is almost a victory lap, their own Trans-Europe Express of the plush, expansive sounds they helped make popular in the first place.
The eight tracks on Edge Of Innocence are remarkable in both their futurity and their fastidious commitment to replicating the sounds of the past. Opener "Spiritual Delusion," for example, could've been a leftover from Airdrawndagger, its percolating midtempo drums, fidgety melodies and generally glitchy touches just begging for a Global Underground airing. "Paparazzi" sounds like some Frankenstein's monster of early '00s records, with breaks that tingle like scattering cockroaches and uncomfortably time-stretched samples, all at a pulse-quickening tempo. It's an old perspective on the future that still sounds mind-blowing today.
Still, D. Tiffany and Roza Terenzi's work has developed an almost manic sense of adventure, which manifests in intricate details and constantly shifting rhythms meant to keep you on your feet. On first glance, "Liquorice Skritch" is set up to be a Radiant Love-core wiggler, all hair-trigger drums and floating pads. But then the drums break down into a hip-hop cadence—Mo' Wax style—before suddenly slamming into a trap breakdown, tick-tocking hi-hats and all. The track goes through what feels like at least four different tempo changes, making "Liquorice Skritch" feel alive and ever-changing, like the shifting shapes and colors of a pleasant psilocybin trip.
Equally psychedelic is the duo's take on drum & bass with "Redemption Arc," where the basslines feel both gigantic and lightweight, as if they were hollowed out, and they smehow conjure up a soundscape that feels as cavernous as a stadium. Complete with trilling, pseudo-classical chimes, "Redemption Arc" comes off like a more ornate version of the liquid drum & bass/ And "Lil' Drummer Boy" runs with D. Tiffany and Roza Terenzi's idiosyncrasies, summing up all their oddest touches in one tracks: rippling groove, sensual textures—almost clammy—and yet more breathy vocals. There's even another thrill-ride of a breakdown into halftime territory. Their music might sound out of control if it weren't so carefully sculpted.
This sense of wildly alive composition makes the record easy to love. It's a blur of feelings that mirrors the adrenaline rush of early trance and jungle, with a level of detail that feels almost cinematic, and oh-so-2022. From the brilliant trip-hop-gone-mad groove of "Grains Of Sand" to the drums on "Liquorice Skritch," so slippery and mutable they feel like grains of sand falling between your fingertips, Edge of Innocence's greatest asset is its sheer enthusiasm—the feeling that that there's always a new, brilliant sound lurking around the next corner. The duo operate in familiar environs, but on Edge Of Innocence they're taking us somewhere new: across the European techno capitals, sure, but also far beyond.
Tracklist01. Spiritual Delusion
02. Gravity Bongo
03. Liquorice Skritch
04. Lil' Drummer Boi feat. Nap & Sleek Bitumen
05. Grains Of Sand
06. Paparazzi
07. Redemption Arc
08. Possession