Dance Again Squarewave

Startalk International is the brainchild of David Boswell and Nicco Eastwood from the Sheffield based electronic duo Hiem. It has proved with its first three releases to be a home for slightly leftfield electronic music, and here turns to Squarewave for a new disco-fried single complete with meaty remix package featuring reworks from Bozzwell, Harman Greene, Club Bizarre and Ed Nauen. Newbie talent Squarehead hails from Croatia and has a love of Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire that shines though in his accomplished music. Spacey and forward facing as well as being influenced by what has gone before, this EP is amongst his first batch of releases and surely will prove to be the start of a great production career. ‘Dance Again’ in original form is a chugging and gritty groove made from rippling and heat damaged synth hooks, chugging, thick and soot laden basslines and plenty of tin pot percussion. Said synths simmer and shimmer like psychedelic heat hazes, rising up through the mix over and over as drums slap below. It’s colourful stuff with plenty of mischievousness at its heart. The first of the remixes is a stripped back and late night affair from Harman Greene AKA Andrew Potter who makes up one half of Populette. All deep house warmth and subtle synth patterning, the original’s growling bassline drives it along with a very real sense of menace. Bossman Bozzwell then lays out his tripped out vision of stripped bare, raw machine disco funk with his remix. Zithering synths, breathy vocal snatches and a purposeful and heavy kick drum make it perfect dancing fodder for those earlier hours of the evening. French duo Club Bizarre then turn in a version that is mysterious and unsettling, with fax machine tones running across its face and all manner of metallic machines noises peppering the ever quickening bass riff. It’s a teaser that builds and builds and never really releases its noir-ish tension. For his part, Ed Nauen’s Reboot is slo-mo, but in a ramshackle way that feels like it might collapse at any minute as the percussion and synths are piled up on top of each other over and over. It’s taken two years to get to the fourth release, but this EP is proof Startalk International prize quality over quantity and have a great ear for A&Ring new talents.