Chaim - Underwater

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  • Chaim's records have a crystal-cut finish, and they sparkle at their iridescent best when played on high-end soundsystems. Having long since left Tel Aviv for Berlin, the Israeli artist has played some of the world's best clubs—but it's Watergate's upstairs room that suits him most. When listening to his bubbling, moody house you can imagine the rising sun glinting through the Oberbaumbrücke outside the club. Neither of these tracks has quite the same big-room gravitas of "Blue Shadow," Chaim's trance-tinged release on Guy Gerber's Rumors earlier this summer. Instead they reveal their charms far more enigmatically. In the case of "Underwater," that's achieved through a chugging groove that pits a rich, rumbling bassline with weepy synths, accented with indecipherable vocals. Little changes for much of "Remember When," a track that shares the low-slung and atmospheric DNA of its predecessor. It's only at a point two-thirds in, when Chaim dials back the chintzy melodies and leaves the rhythm track to do the spadework, that it achieves any uplift. This is an EP that's technically impressive but difficult to fully engage with.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Underwater B1 Remember When
RA