Urlaubshits

Tirk’s recent Tirk02 compilation (collecting the highlights from the last two years’ worth of releases on the label) has been on heavy rotation for me recently. Their carefully chosen output exudes a sharp quality and highly polished sheen (in particular see Architeq’s Birds Of Prey EP) which has put them in the upper echelons of the world’s very best disco labels. This new EP from New York’s Son of Sound is one of the first releases since the aforementioned Tirk02 compilation, and so it comes to me as something quite exciting, not least because it is also his debut release on Tirk.

Thankfully this EP is nothing short of superb, containing three concise and well crafted pieces of disco-rock. Quite often “uplifting” is a dirty word in relation to music, but I would have no hesitation to use it here; this EP is filled with choral vocals, smooth licks and infectious rhythms, which give it a dense instrumentation bringing to mind the new wave sound of Talking Heads rather than the classic disco sounds of the 70s and 80s, which is often the reference point for much of Tirk’s output.

“Life Under Bridges” is a space-disco dub jam, packed with synth sweeps jostling alongside bristling arpeggios, and, dare I say it, really uplifting vocals. The production is always packed with different elements, but it sounds so dry that it never seems crowded; each part literally pops out at you.

“No Retribution” takes a similar path to the first track, but is more vocal driven, and adds some truly irresistible saxophone and a driving cowbell to the mix. But it’s the piano which gives the whole composition a dissonance which really brings everything together, adding the perfect musical compliment to the lack of resolution put across in the main vocal hook: “Can’t seem to let go/Can’t seem to find/No retribution/No piece of mind”. The final track, “El Malo” leaves the vocals out entirely, and sandwiches a section of delayed piano chords and thick bass between two percussive bookends in which copious flanger effects lift the rhythms into the stratospheres, after which you can’t wait to come back down and enjoy the whole thing again.

Listen:> Son of Sound - No Retribution

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No Retribution is out now on Tirk Recordings

Buy it digitally from Boomkat