It’s been just some months shy of 4 years since Machinedrum and Holly launched Berry Patch, their breakthrough collab EP on Imaginative and prescient, and punters and DJs alike have been wistfully questioning if the duo would launch one other such crossover epic. Each artists have launched a great deal of killer tracks on their very own since January of 2020, as they’re every so gifted in their very own proper, however there’s no denying these are two nice tastes that style nice collectively. Now, lastly, this peanut butter cup of a brand new collab EP is sort of upon us. Prepare for River of Heaven.
What’s actually cool in regards to the long-awaited River of Heaven from the Portugese-American duo isn’t simply that it picks up the place Berry Patch left off. That is really a coming collectively of the evolution of two artists during the last three years. Followers shouldn’t go in anticipating similarities; this EP is de facto solely a follow-up by way of chronology. It’s made clear from the opening title monitor, written in Japanese script as 天の川. With this monitor, the duo announce they’re firmly in crossover territory and they are going to be thus for a lot of the EP, with solely two tracks at or round 174. That’s not too shocking, as a lot of Berry Patch had a great deal of tempo modifications and different crossover components, however style apart, there’s additionally quite a lot of distinction stylistically.
With three of the tracks, “Novaform,” “Blueshift” and “Disguise Solar” already out, followers will probably already see quite a lot of variations in model, particularly in “Blueshift.” Whereas the experimental dubstep-tempoed “Novaform” has quite a lot of the heavy, dirty bass of Berry Patch, it’s additionally far more polished with a great deal of atmospheric work. “Blueshift” and “Disguise Solar” are stronger indicators of what’s to come back on River of Heaven: funky, liquid in nature and full of unpolluted, crisp sounds. Machinedrum and Holly additionally experiment rather a lot on this EP with each tempo and common sound. The place Berry Patch was considerably simply classed as neuro-leaning, it seems as if the fellows have made it some extent to problem anybody to categorise River of Heaven. The mashup vibes by no means finish right here, and it’s clearly deliberate.
The principle instance of this purposeful fusion of types, sounds and genres can be our YEDM premiere, the illustrious “Luminae.” Slotted because the penultimate monitor on the EP, it’s additionally an apotheosis of the sound Machinedrum and Holly got down to create this time round. Beginning off as a little bit of a trickster monitor, listeners will probably assume the intro is a gradual but advanced construct right into a D&B drop. As an alternative, the viewers is met with a slower (160?), unclassifiable beat that’s so damaged, one may name it fractured. This offers a great deal of area for the artists to construct up an enormous monitor across the beat, however they hold it minimal, drawing a surprisingly funky construction with impeccably clear snares by the point the monitor will get to the break. Ambient sine wave synths swirl out and in of that open area earlier than mentioned break, which is one other trick as a lone amen pulls the pitch up earlier than dropping into the mindfuck that’s that damaged beat as soon as once more.
There’s a lot occurring with the beat and sound design in “Luminae” that followers might not even discover that there’s a substantial crunchy bass drone a’la Berry Patch underlining a lot of the monitor and giving it depth. Even amongst all this experimentation and new, mind-boggling sounds, the boys nonetheless like their bass. Up to date as it could be after practically 4 years, there’s no mistaking this basic combo the collab between Machinedrum and Holly creates. River of Heaven, in that sense, is much less of a follow-up and extra of an evolution; one other stamp in time for these two progressive artists.
River of Heaven drops on Imaginative and prescient Recordings this Thursday, August 31. Pre-save or pre-order right here.
