UPFRONTBEATS

France’s Okain delivers the ‘Bad Seeds’ EP this September, a four-track package coming via the Pleasure Zone imprint.

Paris-born now Berlin-based producer and DJ Okain has long been a respected figure in the contemporary house world, initially rising up the ranks alongside contemporaries Varoslav, Yakine and many other pushing a raw, stripped-back house sound out of the French scene. Recent years have seen him focusing on his own Talman Records, predominantly a base for his own output and more recently music from friends.

Here though he joins the roster of the revered Pleasure Zone, home to music from Vid, Subb-an, Sepp, Diego Krause and more, ‘Mauvaise Graine’ leads with modulating synth stabs, robust swinging drums and ethereal chord sequences before ‘Tacos Molotov’ takes things down a more reduced path courtesy of crunchy percussion, a snaking bass groove and dubbed out synth plucks.

‘Le Poivrier’ opens the flip side next, employing ethereal chords, wandering jazz-tinged synth lines and a bumpy rhythmic drive. ‘The Truth About You’ then rounds out the release with classic deep house tropes aplenty as acid-tinged bass; airy stabs and 909 drums flow in unison across its seven-minute duration.

• FB: facebook.com/OkainDj
• Twitter: twitter.com/OkainDj
• Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/okain
• Beatport: beatport.com/artist/okain