Phrased - Positive Centre

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  • Phrased are a duo from South London who release 12-inches on their own label, L.B. Produce. Little else is known, except that, in the three years since their debut, they've been improving. Positive Centre is a house record with hints of the other club music styles, including garage and hardcore, that have surfaced on previous Phrased EPs. A more refined sound has emerged from the duo's steady progress. "Positive Centre" has all the ingredients of a lost house classic, with a grainy vocal sample, garage-y hi-hats, a thick bassline and an understated horn countermelody. Some of Phrased's best tracks—"The Edge Of Forever," "Star Maker"—have a rugged UK feel. But on "Our Minds Partition," creamy synth layers smooth the breakbeat's sharpest edges. (It might remind you of 2012's "Still," by Dance.) "How Many" is a zero-gravity glide, where synths and vibraphones are strung together like beads. As well as continuing Phrased's recurring taste for ambient, these tracks share another feature of the duo's music: a knack for melody. On "Our Minds Partition," bright chords and sad synth harmonies intertwine in a lovely minute-long passage. "How Many"'s idiophonic coils are brushed by notes that spin in the opposite direction. The bassy roll of "Bakers Tape" at first seems a skeletal take on Phrased's sound, but then another tangle of melodies—organ smears and tuned one-shots—comes to the surface.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Positive Centre A2 How Many B1 Our Minds Partition B2 Bakers Tape
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