- Dark, shifty techno on Mood Hut from the rising Sydney producer.
- Cousin is at the forefront of a wave of Australian artists pushing dub techno in a chic, loungey direction. Along with peers like Mike Midnight, Angus Mills and Sanguine, the MoonShoe label head is dousing trip-hop laced club arrangements in echoing effects. Cousin's output is typically best suited for the early hours of a tasteful night out. But his new EP, HomeSoon, feels like better fuel for the wine-buzzed afters. Across five tracks, intricate techno grooves, propulsive basslines and blunt synth stabs are cast in a fogged-out haze. While it arrives via Vancouver's Mood Hut—a label best known for laid-back house—the tracks on HomeSoon are much moodier. Building on sounds explored on Cousin's September 7-inch Rosie//On2, HomeSoon sharpens his knack for unpredictable turns and absorbing sound design.
Before stalking Cousin on Instagram, I never would have guessed that he often uses modular synths for his productions. There's an exacting precision to his work that makes it sound like each note has been carefully sculpted and sequenced in a DAW. The impact of envelopes and wires feels clear on HomeSoon, though, because the whole thing seems to sputter and hiss at random. This time around, Cousin's work is more indebted to the overcast gloom of Rod Modell than the twinkle of Purelink. "3 x a charm" opens with bleary, clattering chord stabs, before broken beat drums push things into Well Street Records terrain. "Overpass" is especially low-slung, thanks to a four-on-the-floor bassline and pads that emerge from the deeper octaves of a keyboard. The most driving moment comes on "Muster," which gradually builds to a climax that reminds of Anthony Naples' taut, pounding 2019 LP Fog FM. From front to back, HomeSoon pairs midtempo club rhythms and murky tones in a way that feels both easygoing and meticulous.
The brilliance in Cousin's prior music lay in its intoxicating wooziness—like every sound was beamed from an alternate dimension where things are ever-so-slightly different. But for all the similarly discombobulating elements that make HomeSoon mesmerising, there's a newfound smokiness to Cousin's sound. The end result is perfectly catered to 4 AM chill out rooms.
Tracklist01. Catsu
02. Overpass
03. 3 x a charm
04. Muster
05. Citta