- Weirdo club tracks from an in-demand artist.
- Following standout releases on Nous'klaer Audio, Die Orakel and Whities, plus an ongoing residency at De School, Thessa Torsing is fast becoming an in-demand artist, with spots at some of Europe's best clubs and festivals. Time to make more easily digestible music to suit her new surroundings? Not a chance. Carlos Hawthorn's interview with her last year showed a young artist who is completely dedicated to following her instincts towards unconventional forms of club music. That doesn't change on Branches On Ice, her second EP for Die Orakel.
Where the recent mini LP Wild Chamber leaned into Torsing's love for bright melodies, on Branches On Ice we get to hear her knack for strange sound design. "Branches On Ice," for example, sounds like frogspawn looks. It squelches along at 140 BPM and waits until the last couple minutes to introduce its alien melody. The reflective "Walk In Twilight" is also very cool. It could be an electro track if the beats weren't somehow skewed in a way that's difficult to define. That "Bronze Goddess," which crawls along at 86 BPM, reminded me of the weirdo dancehall production group Equiknoxx, which shows how far out Torsing likes to venture. Only "Shaky Limbs" is hard to get on board with, its tumbling synths never quite attaining the other tracks' bizarre allure.
TracklistA1 Walk In Twilight
A2 Bronze Goddess
B1 Shaky Limbs
B2 Branches On Ice