- There are nods to reggaeton and hip-hop on this high-spec techno EP.
- Since switching to a name inspired by a Joy Orbison anthem about five years ago, Simo Cell has emulated the track's freezing-cold bass and jittery disjunction of dubstep, bass and techno. The producer, real name Simon Aussel, steadily honed a style supported by the Bristol scene orbiting Livity Sound before making a move away from the Peverelist-run label with this year's Pogdance EP. That record saw the Paris-based producer return to his French roots with Brothers From Different Mothers and take more creative risks. He upped the tempo and cracked his aesthetic open by adding ambient and electro while focussing more on sound design.
5 Party Mix is as bold but more fun. Aussel applies his fresh eclecticism to a tight EP that explores a variety of tempos with a surprise dancehall influence. You might not pick up on that last part, because the style has been pulled apart and rebuilt until it becomes a set of kick-heavy bangers. That is until the B-side's "La Pulga," which moves into reggaeton with Spanish-speaking samples, heavy vocal manipulation and a hard-edged take on a dembow riddim. There's also a reference to what's usually associated with chopped and screwed hip-hop in "The Terrible Effect Of Purple Drank," as deep and wobbly sub-bass wades through synth ripples and heavily processed fragments of broken beats. It's hard to tell what Aussel is getting at with this garbled mix of stylistic markers, but it works.
TracklistA1 Uranium
A2 Balandbeat
B1 A Wink Gone Wrong
B2 La Pulga
B3 The Terrible Effect Of Purple Drank