Zooming Out

I must admit to being quietly impressed by the bulk of this album. I’ve never really got on with Etic so well, but suddenly what he’s doing sounds sort of relevant: it’s not fullon, it’s not progressive, it’s not really anything – other than nice, fluid dance music.

Using The Music opens up, and it’s a pretty interesting track that puts me in mind of those old Movers And Groovers compilations. It’s floaty, a bit druggy, yet somehow strangely detached – as though it’s not really all that desperately interested in what you’re doing. X-Press likewise takes a couple of minutes to warm up, after which the sound is pretty tasty. Vacuum-packed drums sit behind a low-set riff, before picking up some proggy elements and moving on in a fairly trancey-hypnotic sort of way.

Sub Mission doesn’t work at all, it’s more in fullon-bothering territory but so many of the sounds are out of tune and lazily layered it’s pretty much unlistenable. Skip on to Dance Proof, which is much more cohesive. Once again the melodies have that old-dawn-chaser vibe, and the way the lead melody unfolds is something to keep your inner-oldskool-monkey happy. The Last Raver is pretty much identical: really. I can’t pick anything between the two tracks.

His remix of Aerospace’s Minority is a delight – the original I found a little too fluffy, but Etic keeps the best parts of the original, polishes it all up with his (by now quite familiar) soundbank, and creates something fresh, tasteful, decent.

After Outro (another dreamy, lazy track – very nice in itself of course, but very similar to everything else we’ve just listened to), things take a turn for the worse. The final five tracks are downtempo “pieces” that just don’t work for me. Somehow they lack the subtlety of Etic’s dancefloor output, a strange paradox when one considers that chillout music really should allow for more expression and freedom in virtue of not being constrained by needing a beat to keep people dancing.

But that’s what we’ve got: the tracks are either as subtle as a brick with awkward drops (Zooming Out, Symbols N Numbers) or they’re unfulfilled, meandering lacks-of-consequence (2 Sec 2 Go, Nothing Will Destroy Our Circle.)

Etic deserves praise for trying something different, particularly in a climate where big tunes equals success. There are shards of brilliance in this, but it’s not going to change the world. For the most part it’s pleasant, reflective stuff that will suit the patches between fullon and progressive. Worth a look.