UPFRONTBEATS

After a fine debut with his Neighbourhood EP, Brighton based Jona Sul is back on his home label, Southern Fried Records, with another magical new EP that finds him cook up widely infused sounds across two great tracks. Fantastic remixes from Vessels and Roscius complete the package.

Jona is part of a new wave of acts signed by Southern Fried for their artistic merit,
their will to evolve and their ability to produce music that works in the club but that takes its cues from a wider sphere of reference. His first EP picked up praise from both DJ Mag and Mixmag, with the latter describing Neighbourhood as sounding like ‘Four Tet jamming with Maya Jane Coles’.

The moody ‘Full Fat’ is a splendid opener full of lush synths, carefully treated, dehumanised but soulful vocals and bouncy chords. It unfolds with a great sense of structure and far from being a loopy floor filler is much more an emotive, heart warming bit of music that will stand proud in any set.

‘Gulf’ is the other original and this one is more punchy and physical. The off kilter drums have you wiggling your rump as a harmonic cloud of Four Tet style melodies and organic wooden hits perform acrobats before your very ears. It’s a complex yet effortless track that oozes tonal richness and real sonic craftsman ship and again proves Jona Sul is a uniquely talented musician.

Leeds based electronic collective Vessels remix this one into an epic, dusty club track with freewheeling melodies, lots of cavernous echo and lithe synths that tingle your every sense as they duck and dive above the dubbed out groove. The second remix is of ‘Full Fat’ and comes from Roscius, who himself is a new producer with an indie informed sound. His version is excellently wild, with crazy pianos, hundred mile an hour hits, unpredictable chords and droning bass all trapping you in his manic yet compelling sound world.

This is expressive, boundary pushing electronic music that sounds like little else out there right now.

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