Nas1 - Stone Cat Ep

vinyl only - 300 limited copies no repress) Bologna s increasing influence on dancefloors across the world continues as hotly tipped lo-fi house duo Nas1 drop their first release on their home town label, SorryForThis records and is sure to be a big moment for their burgeoning reputations. It s an eclectic, multi-layered 4 track EP that pushes the boundaries of what is possible with such minimalist kit to the extreme and includes a remix from Sound Signature legend Marcellus Pittman. Vino Cheenese, as the title suggests, is a leftfield rumbler that, once finished, leaves you unsure how you got there - but sure you enjoyed the journey. Oriental synths flutter over a pounding bassline, taking you from gloriously lo-fi, serene moments to being inundated with beats provided by a Simmons SDS8 and Akai MPC1000 that puncture the surreal atmosphere. The Pittman remix removes any pretence of serenity and has more of an eye on the dark end of the dancefloor. The bassline is rendered more ominous and the beats more relentless and distorted, while keeping the leftfield vibes in tact. AG Pini brings in a lower tempo, with punching industrial yet melodic synths coming in and out of sparse rumbling beats it feels like a Kraftwerk track if they had grown up in Detroit. The Springer is the hardest tune on the E.P – with layers upon layers of crunching beats surrounded by howling, swirling high end synths, looping in and out of each other, putting almost an entire history of dance music in one brutal track.