Marking the announcement of launching her own record label, Trip, Nina Kraviz has offered the first release, a compilation EP featuring a number of artists, from Kraviz herself to Steve Stoll and Exos.
The debut EP echoes the ambition set by the label on their initial release, wanting to focus on stimulating music that, fitting to their name, is both triply and divergent. Kraviz opens the EP herself with the track, ‘Prozimokampleme’. The song instantly demonstrates it’s hypnotic qualities, with an underlying beat being slowly swallowed by the looming of the hi-hat. The spoken-vocal that remains as a background fits ideally into the length of the song, implementing itself as a solid opener.
As a double-EP, trip’s first release demonstrates a generosity and distinct style in their compilation, yet with only one or two track’s shining through the release. The EP’s nature appears narrow, with a formula of production appearing after three or four tracks. Each track holds dependency to the four-to-the-floor beat, with the hi-hat offering a contrast from one track to the next. There is a sense of repetition within the EP, that can often come as a strength. ‘Nuclear Red Guard’ from Exos comes along with a higher rate of BPM and offers a higher pitched FX that strangle comes off as immediately familiar. The track achieves the label’s target of a ‘dusky’ sound as you’re immersed into the effects of the mix.
Though, with such a noticeable formula, its evident a double-EP would include a weak link. Population One’s ‘Bonus Beat’ seemed to offer little development and no divergency within it’s mix. Over the course of the listen, the hi-hat almost seems to grow irritable and fails to compliment the other sounds of the track. The kick-beat offers redemption, mainly the drop and re-introduction further into the track. It is both missed, then savoured when returning into the mix.
Kraviz’s ‘The Deviant Octopus’ was released on December 8 and keeps to a specific style that those searching for a hypnotic-dub influence will enjoy. It marks a confident debut from a new label and Kraviz’s next project in the mixing of the DJ-Kicks mix album, due for release in January 2015.
Sam Fleming
