For a producer of Sega Bodega’s ilk, a release on Crazylegs seems like a logical step. A lot of music that straddles the club and the more progressive side of electronic music can often feel a bit tired, as some producers tend to make use of dissonance and heavy tones to package something that’s supposed to be forward thinking, but ends up coming off as by the numbers. It’s a testament to Sega’s production skill that he manages to bypass this completely. Yes, he makes use of dissonance and harsh sounds, but they are packaged in a way that sounds fresh, and the use of strings and dream like sounds on certain tracks adds a refreshing feel to proceedings.
We open up with intro track “Ess B”, where horror inflected screams sit with royal string sequences that strut their way through the speakers. Clap patterns cut through with a drill like intensity, only to dissolve away into the ether like a departing cloud of fog. “NSFW” is as the title suggests, all frantic, with the screams from the first track carried over and mangled into a hard-edged club joint with the help of some pulverising drums and a seismic, maximum intensity bass line.
“CC” features vocalist and DJ Shy Girl, who lends some dissonant vocals to a frenzied track that feels like the midway between distorted pop and a peak time club banger. Sega manipulates the vocals, pitching them up and down whilst running a cybernetic bassline underneath, with the track eventually spluttering into a rumble of coughs and other distorted kinks.
“Bush Baby” takes things down a notch, deploying hazy keys with dream-like walls of sound to create a hypnotic track, one that wouldn’t seem out of place nestled alongside weightless tracks or tunes with a more ambient-led approach. “3310” brings things back to speed, with it’s twisty melody line acting like a jolt to the system after the previous track. When things really get going, there’s a sense of longing and emotion running through the melody line, with Sega employing those dream like sequences again to evoke that feeling. Closing things off is “Strings in April”. Heavy on the emotion and bringing back those irresistible strings from the opening tracks, it’s another melody-filled track that perfectly bridges the gap between club music and the wider electronic scene.
Ess B shows a producer adept in streamlining wide reaching influences into a coherent project. There’s plenty of structure, with each track feeling carefully picked out rather than a snapshot at where the producer is at musically at this point in time. With the contrasting use of luscious string melodies and the harder sounds associated with club music, there’s the feeling that this could be the jump off point for a signature sound which will bring something new to the world of electronic music.
Words by Ryan Moss
