- Big breaks, big energy and a bit of Big Beat.
- Almost since it started, dance music has never been short on nostalgia. The past few years in particular have reached a fever pitch of once scoffed-at styles becoming hipster lingua franca. Still, there have only recently been whispers (and whatever this is) of a revival of one of clubland's perpetually uncool kid brothers: Big Beat. Enter Kasra Vaseghi and Flood The Club. Growing up in Tehran, Vaseghi fell in love with trance and Big Beat long before he discovered the leftfield oddities he now plays on NTS. Sure enough, opening track "Big Time Business" would have sent the punters at Big Beach Boutique circa 2002 into a frenzy: a series of brash breakbeats cascade across the stereo spectrum, while Vaseghi goes to town on his FX unit with little snippets of guitar and distorted vocals.
The rest of Flood The Club doesn't quite scale those heights, but it still packs in some of Vaseghi's best tracks. "Palmistry" features a chunky, Miami-style bassline and splices some acid and minor key chords into the breaks. On both "Protect the Flame" with longtime collaborator Sepehr and "Magic or Illusion," he gets psychedelic, complete with throat singing.
Flood The Club is a continuation of ideas that Vaseghi began to sketch out on an EP for Radiant Love earlier this year. His early releases were spacey experiments in late night electro and the more ethereal end of the breakbeat spectrum. But, as he explained to Truants earlier this year, he started to find his feet with a brasher style, playing with rock samples and camp nostalgia. Flood The Club is bold and fun, but also a rejoinder that even experimental music can have a populist streak.
Tracklist01. Big Time Business
02. Palmistry
03. Magic Or Illusion
04. Rain
05. Protect The Flame feat. Sepehr