"A note to my new followers: I don't make, play or listen to dubstep. No drama, just clearing things up," wrote Cosmin TRG on his Twitter feed recently. Whatever the reason for his personal rebranding, it's true that the music Cosmin TRG has been releasing recently sounds nothing like his early productions (as TRG) for Subway, Hessle, Tempa and Immerse. (The note is doubly funny because this is the same artist who, back when he was still making something more like dubstep, called one of his tracks "Your Friends Like Techno.") These days, the Romanian producer is making house music, for lack of a better word.
"Liebe Suende" builds a nest out of dusty drum-machine hits and multiple layers of processed samples, which sketch out the tonal outline; its loose, thumping groove signals its rejection of a purist four-to-the-floor stomp at the tail end of every four bars, when the kick drum stubbornly stumbles. As the tune builds, fluttering chords and a detuned acid line fill out the spaces in between dry beats, like a skeleton oozing something viscous.
On "Sores of Attraction," Cosmin TRG's particular approach to vocals again carries the day, as he smears a single, indistinct phrase into a slowly enveloping wave that's mirrored in massing, augmented chords. There's no shortage of artists in either house or dubstep who attempt similar tricks with voices, but Cosmin TRG is the only one who seems to have discovered Todd Edwards while scuba diving. A sturdy kick/hi-hat combination gives the groove its urgent tech-house clip, but shakers and hand percussion cut crosswise with thrumming, nervous energy. It's only when it ends that you really recognize the skipping vinyl rhythm that's been underneath the whole time, a lock groove blown out to massive proportions that underscores the sense that the whole thing could fall apart at any time.
Buy Cosmin TRG - Liebe Suende at
  
Tracklist: Cosmin TRG - Liebe Suende
 A Liebe Suende
B Sores Of Attraction
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