- Zoltan has been around for a couple of years, exploring the convergence of post-dubstep bass music and tech house. For his latest EP, on Ikonika and Optimum's Hum + Buzz, it seems like the Amsterdam-based Hungarian has given free rein to his wilder impulses. The result is a collection of high-energy hybrids packed with metallic textures and pummeling syncopations. It's not a total reinvention, but suddenly he brings to mind recent rumblings in the UK's underground—the likes of Her Records or Night Slugs' Club Constructions.
"Aprah" displays these similarities particularly strongly, with a welter of fractured rhythms and a hulking bassline reminiscent of Bok Bok's "Silo Pass." The machinegun claps of "Consignments" show similar proclivities, while "Pardon, What (Msc)"'s asymmetrical halftime groove is a distant cousin of grime. Elsewhere Zoltan plays things straighter, with mixed success. "Saturn" and "Phobos" have a pleasingly bleak feel, but their content isn't all that remarkable. "Raptors" partially redeems things, its glitched-out clap pattern sounding like a surgical drill to the inner ear.
Given the ceaseless intensity of these tracks, most of them feel too long—they'd work better as three-or four-minute depth charges rather than six-minute bombardments. Zoltan's main problem, though, is that his ambition often outstrips his technical chops. As a rule these tracks are crowded and exhausting on the ear, and you sense they don't bang in quite the way that's intended.
Tracklist01. Aprah
02. Consignments
03. Raptors
04. Saturn
05. Pardon, What? (MSc)
06. Phobos