- If ever there should be a museum of tech house kick drum sounds, the one from Gregor Tresher's "As Days Go By" should go somewhere in the collection. It's one of those almost impossibly vacuum-sealed kicks that stomps and snaps all at once, like a computerized knock on a door mixed with the sound of someone popping the bubbles of that plastic packing material that provides so much joy to dexterous children. It's also one of those kicks that manages to command a track even after all the other parts build to a sort of frenzied din over top. "As Days Go By" makes a good game of arranging those parts, some of them jazzy (simulated spacey electric piano jamming, burbles of bass that sound like they could've come from an upright) and some of them right down the middle of the tech house lane.
The B-side "Moving Islands" sashays more, even as it scans as more dark—thanks to a loop of what sounds like a demon saying "yeah…" after getting serviced by someone he just met at a bar. "Up and Running" follows in a slightly more minor-key mode, with a moodiness that suggests good things in the way of range but a same-ness to the beat that keeps it from venturing into truly new territory.
Tracklist A As Days Go By
B Moving Islands