NIAGARA - Impar

Limited first pressing > Individually hand-painted sleeves > Recorded and mixed live by Niagara. A couple of years have passed and a ton of material has been amassed after the sold out "Ouro Oeste EP". It's a given fact from the very beginning that Niagara are a prolific bunch. From their HQ to the north of Lisbon, the trio puts together some of the most organically synthetic house music we hear these days. May sound like a contradiction but bear in mind practically everything you hear on this EP is played live (including a most charismatic electric bass). Even the final mix is done live. "Arruda" has an infectious vocal snippet leading procedures, morphing from an indistinguishable bleep into a recognizable voice. Discreet and stylish use of string sounds and tambourine, a bassline made up of a repeated "acid" pattern plus the usual chunky midtempo signature beat. "Arruda" happens to be the surname of brothers Alberto and Antonio, joined in Niagara by Sarah Eckerman; "Abacaxi Limao" introduces live bass as the anchor of the whole groove, wild background percussion, and those chunky chunky beats add a robotic step. By now it's quite clear how Niagara sound like; "Legume" opens side B with a small burst of distortion. Then it's all about the interplay between the deepest bass and playful keys. Everything becomes more spacey and pastoral on the second half, culminating with a flute comedown; "Cheetah" sounds like a lost Chicago classic, never giving in to smoothness. It's familiar but also hard to pinpoint. Major contribution to the hypnosis induced by these moderately slow but hard-stepping beats; "Alagarta" shoots out with a million rays of sunlight in a joyous manifestation of happiness on the dancefloor, though it is far from being the typical functional dance track. It's here that the live production ethics of Niagara are clearly perceptible and we can't help but show a broad smile when the cascade of bleeps leads to the conclusion. Complex, glorious shit Record Label: Principe Style: Electronic