- One half of The Knife lands on Hessle Audio with a triumphant return to dance music.
- When Olof Dreijer first released "Rosa Rugosa" as a single on Hessle Audio, it felt like the heartwarming return of an old friend you might have forgotten about. Busy with various projects including The Knife (which he cofounded) and Fever Ray, the Swedish artist had only done a handful of remixes in recent years, along with an excellent original that dated back to 2009 and a memorable pandemic DJ set that hinted that he was ready to come back to dance music.
"Rosa Rugosa" was the ecstatic result of all that built-up anticipation and good will. It's even more impressive in how it combines the esoteric techno of Dreijer's hallowed Oni Ayhun project with the plasticine tropicalia of The Knife. Full of pumping kick drums and pitch-bent synths, "Rosa Rugosa" reaches towards the heavens with a melody line that feels both epic and cutesy, exuding the mix of joy and nostalgia that has been Dreijer's calling card since the beginning.
The two new tracks on the flipside of the fully-fleshed out EP are even more upbeat. On "Camelia," major-key melodic motifs duke it out—occasionally slipping into giddy bent-note flourishes—over a broken beat. Some bits sound like bird song and at one point the bassline takes on an almost human dimension, an uncanny valley effect that feels unusually flattering in Dreijer's hands. There's also a bit of amapiano in its swing and warm, hop-scotching basslines, which Dreijer runs with on "Cassia." Here, he borrows the South African genre's trademark log drum sound with more squiggly synths. The rhythm section does a lot of the talking until the melodic leads multiply and join together in a chorus of squeaks and chirps in the mid-section. It's a moment of unfettered and oddly alien exultation that signals that one of the best producers in 21th century dance music really is back, and means business.
Tracklist01. Rosa Rugosa
02. Camelia
03. Cassia