- NEVERSLEEP, the duo of Moiré and Disguise, released a "video mixtape" to accompany their debut EP, Mouth Shut / Party Girls. At the rate of at least 10 frames per second, close-ups of stylised magazine typography, people in dark spaces and graffiti tags flicker through the piece on an extended loop. Conceivably, NEVERSLEEP could've put together their first record in a similar way: consolidating diverse but closely related sounds into a sticky, nocturnal collage.
Scraps of hip-hop vocals and a disco diva's isolated pleas are scattered along the edges of these three glitchy, shifting house tracks. Moiré takes scissors to rap lyrics and static tones on his remix of "Mouth Shut." He stirs the clips with hard, leaden drums, but it's too lumpy a mixture to really get moving. When the density of their sound is minimized, as Disguise does especially well on his remix of "Mouth Shut," NEVERSLEEP emphasizes the appeal of their blotchy samples. Disguise and Moiré's edit of "Party Girls," another hip-house cut shrouded in white noise, gives off the same warm, televisual glow of the neighbouring tracks. Even though it has a different name, "Party Girls" doesn't seem all that distinct from the two "Mouth Shut" versions. As a whole, the EP can feel like watching a slick highlight reel—there's plenty of impact, but it skims over its ideas a little too quickly.
TracklistA1 Mouth Shut (Moiré Remix)
B1 Party Girls (Disguise & Moiré Edit)
B2 Mouth Shut (Disguise Special Mix)