Nathan Micay has always been a maximalist. The Canadian producer and DJ first made a name for himself under the pseudonym Bwana with releases on Aus Music and later AD 93 with leftfield, sometimes breakbeat-inspired takes on house and techno that were playful on the one hand and dramatic on the other; trancey in an affective sense, though sometimes also stylistically. An »Akira« re-score, a return to his birth name and a turning away from dancefloor dictates later, Micay took his debut album proper »Blue Spring« as a starting point for one of the best TV soundtracks in recent history for the »Euphoria but set in the City of London« hit show »Industry.« His score, much like most of Micay’s other music, managed to sound overwhelming and intimate, nostalgic and futuristic, emotional and detached at the same time.
»To A God Named Dream« has big shoes to fill and does so, naturally, with aplomb. Traces of the rhythmic frameworks of trip-hop, breakbeat music and certain IDM styles still permeate these eleven tracks, the glossy bright trance sequences are howling even louder and Micay regularly makes concessions to contemporary pop music, even though he works primarily with a synthesiser or at most a sample for his hooks. For the most part, this album sounds more as if someone had sent the cosmic visions of the Berlin School through the Kontor wind tunnel, accidently letting them crash in Charli XCX’s studio. This rigid maximalism, or rather exuberant eclecticism, can be challenging at times. But Micay is gifted enough to make this challenge a fun one through and through.
