Review Electronic music

Pangaea

Release

Hessle Audio • 2012

Pangaea could have done without the last track on the record. It’s one of those sudden attacks of ambience-longing, trying to unexpectedly suggest the artist has a quiet and self-reflective thinker-side after all those other hard beats. Especially since the context of a double-EP makes it appear out of place, brittle, and musically insignificant. But Pangaea’s »Release« is actually filled to the brim with rhythm (not taking the wannabe sound-art track number eight into account). Kevin McAuley cuts right to the chase on his fifth EP, which he released on Hessle Studio, the label he founded together with Ben UDO and Pearson Sound. There really is no waiting around. From the first second, all elements are trembling and rioting through technoid alleys – the trees are decorated with heavy crowns of bass and dubstep, connections to IDM, a bunch of broken beats and great rave-moments on overhung branches. And even though it might lack a certain dramaturgy through out the long tracks, it makes »Release« a perfect DJ-tool for mass hysteria on the dance floor! Especially, since the productions are so tight and neat that they perfectly ventilate one’s PA and auditory canal.