- Dazzling house that has been lighting up dance floors all summer.
- Mandar's only release of 2018 sounds like it could be the project's biggest. The trio of Lazare Hoche, Malin Genie and S.A.M. have released their fair share of sought-after club tracks, dating back to 2012's "Shrim," a subaquatic groover loaded with subtle details. Their sound hasn't changed much in the meantime, but it gets closer to perfection with each release—at this point, it's tough to say what more you could want from a house tune. "String Theory," the spellbinding A-side from Mandar's latest 12-inch, has it all: subtle tension, a groove that could go on forever and flecks of beautiful melody. It's the kind of track that unites a dance floor as it unfurls.
As far as Mandar goes, it's also fairly bold. There are two drops, the beat kicking back in as strings reminiscent of Pépé Bradock's "Deep Burnt" hit their climax. The sound design feels somewhere between Bradock and Four Tet, another master of intricacy. The melodies are abstract yet full of feeling, the sound of what could be a xylophone buried underneath snippets of synth, percussion and those strings, seemingly taken from Ziad Rahbani's 1978 track "Mais El Rim." The B-side, "Poisoned Words," is darker, and more functional than jaw-dropping. It's the kind of muscular deep house cut DJs like Cabanne and Sonja Moonear like to spin, so you may have heard it before. This EP has racked up serious club play over the past few months, and you can expect it to get plenty more. This corner of house music doesn't produce many anthems, but "String Theory" might be one of them.
TracklistA String Theory
B Poisoned Words