Stefan Goldmann didn't establish himself as a force in electronic music by doing things the standard way: his own productions and those found on his Macro label rarely sound like they're coming from the same universe as practically everything else on the shelves. That's certainly the case on the Adem EP, Goldmann's and Macro's latest: neither his weirdest nor heaviest record, it's nonetheless the kind of ticklish release that can tie a DJ set into the best sort of musical knots.
"Adem" takes its melody from chalga, a sort of winding Bulgarian folk/pop/dance style, and it provides Goldmann with just the sort of closely placed notes and resulting sweet dissonances he likes. (A melody-isolating "Chalgapella" heads off the B-side.) The beats, however—wiry, precision-cut daggers of drums—are Goldmann's own. Tech house fans have heard plenty of Eastern European sounds woven into these sorts of rhythms over the years, but "Adem" doesn't feel like a cut-and-paste job: each serves to amplify the bounce of the other. "Rigid Chain (Dub Mix)" goes quite a way with just bass, a few drum samples, quiet pads and a hyperactive delay unit. "Shallow Grave" settles into a kind of grim post-industrial space, a bit of a weird landing pad for an EP that begins with such bounce. But Stefan Goldmann rarely plays to any expectations other than, well, just that.
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Tracklist: Stefan Goldmann - Adem EP
 A Adem
B1 Chalgapella
B2 Rigid Chain (Dub Mix)
B3 Shallow Grave
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