News Reviews

Rich Curtis & Dark Soul Project – Synesthesia EP [Slideways Music]

by Priya Sen March 3, 2015

Toronto label Slideways Music releases Progressive master Rich Curtis, who brandishes his musicality along-side Dark Soul Project, in a collaborative track titled – “Synesthesia”. The EP also features remixes from Gai Barone and Dustin Nantais who’ve come out absolute winners. The distinctly nocturnal sounding reworks, raise things up all the way.
Focusing on the original mix, is difficult as the multi layered plumage of the track shifts in and out through moments of melancholic melody and then meanders on to that silky pulsing happy center against an arctic bass. The stylistic treatment of this track is not lost on me, as the thuddering qualls and micro textures, slap against ultra tight arrangements of bubbly synths, and rotating grooves, rush at you, cosmically.
Following fast on the original take, Gai Barone’s Venus Remix has light shimmering pads that bounce off each other and faded bits of percussion cascade down like an endless waterfall against the steamy bass line. It creates a tangible atmosphere, that of dark, dreamy, timeless Progression. Occupying the middle of the track is one of the most reckless breakdown in recent times. One can just drive and dive in to this one.
Gai Barone Son of Duke Remix has echoed percussion in it’s midst, while upping the tempo slightly from the previous versions, and adding a welcome bass kick over, including a nifty backwards rhythm that adds to the otherworldly feel, the activity is much more swirling than the original. He submerges the whole formula in a vat of fizzing acid and playing back the half-dissolved track over the most uptempo beat, screws on a pasture of shaking bass.
Ending up with the Dustin Nantais remix, his interpretation keeps itself close to the original, not much in terms of changing or wiring the track elsewhere, but what it does contain is a stretched middle that goes on endlessly, and a clipped crisper sensuality. The melody rips around breaking in to fireflies and the well placed drifts add a sense of chemical pleasure and disorientation in the narrative.
The artistic flair of the producers and direction of the label is most heartening, and I see a whole loada plays with this pack.