Elef - Be My Friend EP | FWD Entertainment

sallman said on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 23:06

Artist: Elef

Title: Be My Friend EP

Label: Consistent

Catalog #: CONSISTENT003

Genre: House

Release Date: July 19, 2010

Rating: 8

Yes! Good new house music! And, surprise, it's from Germany. Elef is a new and up and coming producer from Essen. His music melds modern production techniques with that super funky raw energy of favorite old-school house jams.

For example, "Be My Friend" takes house music's chopped vocals and jazz-twinged keyboard loops, and blends them with the rolling sub-bass lines that you would usually find in minimal techno. Elef brings it up to date with intricate mini drops and mini builds that create a sub-category of crescendo and decrescendo. So instead of the constant build, we climb on a slight sinusoid: it's magnificent.

My favorite is "Panama Express". It starts with rhythmically looped mutterings. The filter makes this noise slide up and down, a foreshadowing of the bass to come. Next is the kick. It is so banging that its tail makes its own rhythm. This relentless loop drills its way through the basilar membrane until the circular keyboards begin to fluctuate through space. Finally, there is an opening, air drifts through the room, then a bass line tears the entire construction apart revealing house hi hats and crunchy claps. The bass descends deeper down and down as the drums build up. Elef uses this push and pull to control the dynamics of this all out pounder.

Good work here from Consistent and Elef.

- Neil Cline

Tracks:

1) Be My Friend

2) Panama Express

3) Sweatin'