- Pablo Mateo's productions are often more lighthearted than last year's moody RA podcast would suggest. Take ORPHEUS007, his new EP on Berlin's Black Orpheus. Its three tracks feel perfect for those final moments of a club night, when the workers are wiping down the bar and sunlight is creeping in through the windows. Two of them, "Into5" and "Next Times For Shure," are especially dreamy. "Into5" builds from a stumbling rhythm track to a slice of radiant techno as Mateo adds beams of synth that eventually overtake the mix, bringing a soft touch to an otherwise tough beat.
"Next Time's For Shure" targets a similar mood. The beat is more straightforward but there are more elements at play, with 303 and a few types of synth. The mood, like so many great dance tracks, is somewhere between melancholy and bliss, as different parts—the acid line, the gurgling synth—come and go, tweaking the mood as the arrangement shifts. "B-Lane" is messier, pairing a shuffling breakbeat with a tangle of synths. More lo-fi than the other selections, it brings a darker mood to an EP full of positive grooves.
TracklistA1 Into5
B1 Next Time's For Shure
B2 B-Lane