Friday March 29th, 2024
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Gaser: Absolute Magnitude EP (Besworx)

Student DJ Program winner Gaser's new EP, slated for release on the pioneering Besworx record label later this month, shows his aptitude for unique melodies and crowd pleasing tunes. We get an advance-listen...

Staff Writer

Gaser’s latest and long awaited EP, is a lot to wrap one’s head around. A hazard of being a new producer about to get released by a big digital label Besworx is that you tend to give it your all. As such, the EP contains four tracks and each track could probably compose four more tracks. Gaser has a trademark melodic approach to dance music; the first track is full of lush melodies and that theme doesn’t seem to fizzle out through the rest of the EP. Reminiscent of Progressive House, circa Nick Warren, the first track, Absolute Magnitude, has a growling bass line, that creates and ongoing anticipation layered on top of synths, boisterous keys and variants of percussions on the 16th and 32nd. It’s evident that Gaser relies on melody to create drama to his tracks and that becomes abundantlyclear in the first track's drop, where the Trance-like synths accompany the key melody that sounds a bit haphazard on purpose. The drop - which is our favourite part, due to it’s minimalist approach - has a repetitive growling bass that's really enjoyable. 

Aphelion, probably our favourite track on the EP, has a nice crushing clap sound that’s definitely not from a real 909 clap but it could be. The bass line here is a bit Deep House-y, like most of the stuff that’s being used in clubs these days, but nice percussive work over laying the dramatic baseline and an equally dramatic evolving synth make up this track. Again, all over the track, there are the gospel like vocals reminiscent much of the heyday of Trance or Prog House; at this point, we’re sure Gaser had to have either genre for an inspiration. The monster drop will definitely get the club going, and the melody too. This is a lot like Rodriguez Jr's early work, or like Stephan Bodzin’s later stuff.

Penumbra is bright and the most resembling to Gaser’s now evident Prog and Trance roots. This one could work well at sunrise moments, although the three note melody might drive you mad since it gets going from the very first second. The bass is a beast and it was nice to hear it by itself, but it wasn’t long until Gaser again gets all Benny Bennassi on it for a 30-second break until the melody comes back again.

Quasar is our second favorite track on the EP, and it’s another melodic number. It sounds Jaar inspired and is probably the most experimental track of the bunch and with an intro nearing the two minute mark, it’s hard to pick between this and Aphelion. The kick is very Techno and the melody doesn’t sound forced but complementing this is Gaser’s best trick and he does it in it’s most subtle yet best approach; a singular loud siren marks the crescendo into which a further display of melody trickery is comes through. The lack of drop makes it all the better, and the four-five note melody leaves you thirsty for more. And we are thirsty for more of Gaser’s work. With his first EP almost out, and this plethora of ideas and armed with lush melodies and driving baselines, we can only assume that it’s uphill from here. Absolute Magnitude EP is out on Besworx, August 17th. Grab your copy on Beatport.