Boola - Astroceva EP

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  • Say all you want about those [a:rpia:r] boys: 2008 to these ears belonged to another Romanian phenom, Boola. Bogdan Barea started off the year releasing on the trio's homespun label and finished it with half of an Innervisions EP and a number of Lomidhigh credits to his name. Astroceva is the first of two LMH Organic releases to see the light of the day in as many months, and it's a relentless banger of a release, full of the patchwork house music that has become his trademark. "Astrahan" sets the scene about as well as anything here. The track seemingly begins in mid-sentence, as if we've merely come upon the tune a few minutes into its gestation. Barea's work sounds like it needs a few more coats of primer—the drums are almost too present, a bassline clearly played from a guitarist impatient to get out of the studio and back to his normal gig. It's not grit exactly, because these are highly ordered compositions that march stiffly in lock-step and only approach funkiness because of their repetition. But you get the sense that these aren't presets either. (That, or he covers up their use well.) "Wopetra" and "Noru" are the highlights, with the former warping a stumbling break into a 4/4 template. "Wopetra" doesn't sound "right," but Barea wills the track to meet the genre's form. The tracks on Astroceva sound like hard work, as though Barea is standing behind these children with mussed-up hair and chocolate on their faces that can't stand still and is trying to get them to (at least) stand up straight. He doesn't quite succeed, but that wobbliness that results is exactly the point. While nothing here quite approaches Petre Inspirescu's "Sakadat," Boola seems capable of a similar scene-defying moment. One to watch.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Astrahan A2 Wopetra B1 Noru B2 Afroceva
RA