- A lowkey hero of the underground's long-awaited debut is a little bit cathartic and a little bit creepy—but all about the funk.
- Gwenan's debut EP, Activation Energy, pulls a fast one from the word go. Instead of saving her downtempo musings for the B2, she leads with it. The dubby, shuffling minor key synths—less gentle comedown, more too-strung-out-to-sleep—of the title track duet with a series of twangy chords. This should make it clear that Gwenan, both as a DJ and now as a producer, has always marched to the beat of her own 808. Activation Energy, arriving on Andrew James Gustav's label Marginal Returns, is Gwenan's long awaited debut, and also an understated, minimal masterpiece. Unhurried and weird, it touches on everything you might expect from her DJing—electro, breakbeat and techno—as it oscillates between heartstring-tugging beauty and afterhours creepiness.
This juxtaposition is loudest on "Attention Movement," which is the record's most dramatic track, replete with cinematic chords and a rolling breakbeat. But the two lead lines that stumble daydrunk out into the light, bumping into commuting normies as they look to keep the party going. On the electro-tinged "Control Change," there's a bright synth and some second-wave Detroit chords undercut by a muffled noise low in the mix that sounds like zippers being forced open and shut. Even when she's playing with the electro-infused techno we heard on her RA Podcast, she opts for silly instead of sinister. "Foundation," is basically just a bassline with the occasional live and loose cowbell and flatulent synth notes—think DJ Sotofett remixing Binh.
Listening to Activation Energy, I kept thinking that if I were a DJ, I'd want to be Gwenan when I grow up. In the late '00s, She was part of a second diggers' generation alongside the likes of Joe Delon, Bruno Schmidt and Pascal, who followed the lineage of Jane Fitz or Nicolas Lutz. But Gwenan never opted for the limelight. She plays a steady amount of gigs, and focuses on the headsy crowds you find at Waking Life or The Pickle Factory rather than seeking out Platinum Frequent Flyer status. Speaking to RA about her mix back in 2018—her sole online interview—she explained that her then-recent move to Berlin was to focus on productions. It's only now that we're getting the fruits of that labor. But this is on brand for her. Tracks this considered mean that even if we have to wait another five years, people will still be playing Activation Energy until then.
Tracklist01. Rhythm Delay
02. Foundation
03. Control Change
04. Attention Movement