- You say Balearic, I say incidental '80s TV music, but whatever you want to call Londoner-gone-to-Tokyo producer Max Essa, he knows how to make it work. He's released more robust music than the four cuts on this EP, but Midnight and Dub Direction's plastic synth glide, relaxed rock-disco beats and clucking rhythm guitar are on a comfortable cruise control here. It's a persuasive argument for the pleasures of Essa's type of formalism.
The neon glow and lockstep, one-finger keyboard bassline of "Glass Bottomed Boats" give it a faded luster that's like a contemplative stroll down the Sunset Strip in the moments before the bars close. "Midnight and a New Direction" is here in two mixes. Essa's own dub works up a measured froth—those "We've got, got" vocal dabs give it some propulsion, and so does a b-line that sounds like it was found in one of Bernard Edwards' coat pockets—while Visti & Meyland's remix hews to the original song structure while building a synth-sheet swell that keeps rising till it finally ends. The dub mix of "One Night out of Seven" opens with the EP's straightest disco beat and its most rock-like guitar, but otherwise hews to the Essa basics.
Tracklist A1 Midnight And A New Direction (Special Dub Mix)
A2 Midnight And A New Direction (Visti & Meyland Remix)
B1 One Night Out Of Seven (Dub Mix]
B2 Glass Bottomed Boats