- When London's Moiré stepped into the limelight last year, many compared him to Actress. It wasn't just down to his affiliation with Werkdiscs, either. His debut for the label, Never Sleep, and its followup on Rush Hour, Rolx, owed a strong debt to Darren Cunningham in their taste for sandpaper textures, unusual sound combinations and subtly denatured grooves. Moiré's distinctive skill was streamlining these sonics into something with greater dance floor utility. This EP, his return to Werkdiscs, continues in a similar vein, though as ever, there's a subtle prankster streak that keeps us on our toes.
BBOY 202 is apparently a "response" to Never Sleep highlight "Lose It." While it works well as a partner piece, there's little surface evidence of the tracks' shared sound sources. If anything, its muscular groove and snipped vocal samples recall the likes of Midland—except the arpeggiating bassline is a bit more wayward, the hi-hats wheeze rather than tick along crisply, and there's a boxy quality to the mix, as if the sound of the basements it's intended for has been added in advance.
"False" isn't quite so solid. The basic contrast between itchy percussion and muted organ chords is nice enough, but this time that boomy sound quality is made even more extreme; the results sound a little muffled and un-engaging. Finally, "Window," whose gentle eddies of sound were apparently made on a Jupiter 8 in a "Hamburg synth studio," is Moiré's take on new age-y synth music—and very pleasant it is, too. That he tackles an alien style so adeptly is proof of Moiré's versatility and technical prowess.
TracklistA1 BBOY 202
A2 False
B1 Window