- NSWL017 goes even further than the Ballads EP in illustrating just how far L-Vis 1990 has come since 2011's Neon Dreams, his pop-tinged album that was well produced but was ultimately let down by patchy writing. L-Vis 1990 continued to deploy his colourful boogie-influenced grooves on last year's Ballads, but sparingly folded them into a sound more closely aligned with the digital dazzle of his Night Slugs cohorts Jam City and Egyptrixx.
The Jam City comparison is especially apt on L-Vis 1990's warped grime VIP "Ballad 4D." The original track is stripped to a metallic chassis of fierce kicks and glittering hi-hats, each drum hit and square-wave synth sounding poised in frozen space. On his "Not Mad" bootleg, Helix yokes the snaking bassline and a blast of eye watering snares into a no-nonsense hybrid of grime and techno that's as functional as his own Night Slugs releases. The groove is lithe but hits hard, with a scattering of fragmented gasps Helix's only concession to the human agency behind its steely architecture.
トラックリストA Ballad 4D
B Not Mad (Helix Bootleg)