Liminal Winter – A Liminal Winter
A Liminal Winter
Liminal Winter
EP
Slushwave
Dom Lepore
April 3, 2024
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It is fair to say we are all missing the club night experience in one way or another. The excitement of the dance floor, the cool and intoxicating air of the smoking area, even the overly-expensive drinks. But DJ SWISHA promises a vital dose of high-octane, footwork-y goodness, and to bring the party straight to our ears with this 5-track EP released via Fools Gold Records.
A cold percussive tone begins Reconstructed Club. DJ SWISHA offsetting the beat with canned claps introducing an infectious beat from the very beginning of Nothing But Net. From there a heavy bass swoops in, covering everything in a vibrating gloss as shouting voices play off against a voice repeating ‘that’ endlessly. The title of the track can give some clues as to its ear-grabbing sound. It feels as though someones taken apart a heavy club banger, ripping each part from one another and sitting them separately, to then bring them back together. Everything holds but in a wonderfully detached way. Towards the end of the track, we can hear more evidently sampled beats begin to push their way through. However the majority of the track is didactic in its delivery of heavy, dance floor beats.
Fake Molly surfaces with a shifting, iridescent melody line. Again, we’re sideswiped by the lower percussion. The strength of the kick drum instantly casts the listeners mind back to dark clubs and thumping sound systems. As tom drums interject, quickening the momentum DJ SWISHA continues to pull our focus back to this amorphous melody weaving its way in the background. Open hi hats spray into the air keeping the track moving with constant activity. The track plays out like an increasingly bad trip, there is a curiously sinister feeling at the back of the mind, but driven by the adrenaline of the endless beat the listener falls deeper into a trance.
The calming nature of the chord that begins Crypto brings a little solace before melting under DJ SWISHA’s manipulating production. The rhythm is upbeat with an incessant hi hat and playful clapping. After letting the beat ride along, we find hip-hop legend Bahamadia’s vocal bubbling up through watery echo. She slips into beat seamlessly, spitting bars with a unfailing coolness in the very front of the mix. The producer takes the opportunity to ease the instrumentation back behind her commanding vocals and bring it zooming back in. After the verse, DJ SWISHA sends Bahamadia’s voice whipping around the infectious rhythm. In putting melody before percussion in terms of volume, a fun and ridiculously danceable track is created.
Methods begins with a muffled, high-octane beat comprised of tuned kicks and tom drums. Before long, the listener is enveloped in the most fast-paced track to come so far. Again, a single syllable vocal stab is used to inject that footwork sensibility. A momentum is built, but not let loose just yet. It is almost as if the producer keeps the dancefloor down in a crouched position, anticipating a big payoff after this onslaught of insurgent beats. But true to the style, the pace is kept and the momentum continues unheeded and uninterrupted.
The titular track comes at the very end, beginning with unassuming snare hits. A kick works its way around, followed by a squelching bassline bouncing past the beat. DJ SWISHA bursts through with sampled breaks, opening up the initially narrow sound. Soundbites are chewed up and chopped suddenly as the bass sound continues to vibrate underneath everything. Shouted vocals slice through the growing wall of sound, refining that fantastic duality of fun rhythm with austere melody. Though the chopped up beats become the focal point of the track, DJ SWISHA still blasts that kick drum at certain times throughout, reiterating that heavy beat-centric style.
There is something so direct about Nothing But Net. In it we find a fantastic producer blending open-ended samples with unswerving juke percussion. Some tracks let the beats do all the talking, interjecting with minimal melody, whereas some take a more thoughtful direction and provide intricately textured melodies with a more stony feeling.
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