RELEASES

A look that is being shot from across the room, is being returned. Time stands perfectly still, while endorphins start rushing through the body at lightspeed. Pupils dilate. Knees grow weak. Maybe an hour passes or maybe only a few seconds. After which, two individuals find themselves entangled in an Unstoppable Desire. It is this moment, this blazing emotion that Stigmatique tries and succeeds to capture on his Debut EP for Seelen. Opening with the title track, the listener can immediately notice Stigmatique hitting a different tone than what he is known for. His trademark percussion elements are here paired with a stone-flattening Kickdrum, but the entire vibe of the track is more on the uplifting side. A catchy synth sequence pushes the track forward with the occasional strings layered over, providing short bursts of slight melancholy. The track really deserves it's title so intensely, that in the right moment, the listener will surely feel their heart starting to race, and their head lighten when it jettisons out of a speaker. On the second original, Somewhere at Nowhere, we hear a more typical side of Stigmatique, if however interlaced with one element that gives the track an additional edge. Over it's stomping, destructive percussion, a vocal has been layered, meditatively caught in a sing-song. It is reminiscent of distant worlds, and undiscovered places and uses the EP's theme of desire to it's fullest. On the Record's B-Side we have two absolute masters of drum programming manning the remixes. First up, taking a swing at the EP's title track, we have french madman Hadone, delivering an absolutely mind-bending take of it. Looping only half of the tunes catchy melody, and writing two beautiful stab melody's over it. This here, this is one of the tunes you want hear before you are scraped off a clubs ceiling because they want to finally close. Second, Introversion presents his version of Somewhere at Nowhere. Being no stranger to vocals that lie more on the side of “world music” than anything else, he has fleshed the track out quite a lot. The Kickdrums, low-tuned hi-hats, and breakbeat percussions he's known for are here of course. Interestingly though, he has taken a large step away from the original's minimalistic approach, instead writing a looping main-melody, tailored to go along perfectly with the vocal. It shifts the original from a dark tool into a traditional melodic banger, fit for the sweatiest of warehouses. After the last sounds have ebbed away out of the speakers though you are left with a sense of longing. It leaves you with an emotion difficult to put your finger on. An utmost, and deeply digging desire.