Deemphasis is a producer from Clermont-Ferrand in central France, a town known for its tyres, rugby, and a big statue of Vercingetorix. But that snapshot doesn’t really get you any closer to the music this guy makes. “The Loss of Gravity EP”, released this week on the London-based Shameless Toady label, is made up of two tracks that bristle and snarl with crisp electro.
Opener “Connected” calls to mind tracks like Anthony Rother’s “Red Light District”. Brooding metallic snares shimmer under a single synth line that almost feels like “Röyksopp’s Night Out” has taken them to the seedier side of town. Acid lines gurgle and twist and drive this track forward, while entirely indecipherable voices lend an even further nightmarish quality to the proceedings. The title track continues in a similar vein, pummeling forward as it utilises sounds you may expect in a generic electro-house track but twisting them to Deemphasis’ own ends. The lower register groans as acid themes abound above, while the frenetic percussion adds an air of relentless movement to the track. Neither track reinvents the electro wheel, but both display the ability of a producer well versed in the history of the genre, as well as a label not content to latch on to any passing fad.