Newly minted label Psychic Relief poses up and flexes shamelessly with its inaugural release Muscles Hug Your Bones, a brawny EP of swirling technoid psychedelia, muscular bass-weight, and unabashed sentimentality by Philadelphia-based rave rascal Furtive.
Bringing things into motion is Convoke, an impellant, rippling track opening with a stalwart kick and shifting, auroric sheets of harmonics. This densely textured wormhole slinker isn’t ostentatious, but its unrelenting progression and deliberate percussive maneuvers will command feet to move, summoning dancefloor supplicants toward pulsing speaker stacks.
The EP’s title track punches in with a crunchy, energizing bounce - primed to bring packed rooms into full, rocking swing. The immediacy of its peppy, rambunctious groove and rolling, skittering percussion is bound to start frothing things up… and the acid line hasn’t even come in! Once that rippling squelch starts bubbling up, the frenzy of this sweaty, muscular weapon simply has to be felt - it’s a proper belter, while also perfectly arranged for slick and easy playback. Muscles has been play-tested in many packed rooms, and it always does the trick!
Flipped over to the other side is the crooked drum and bass roller I Always Try To Be This Gentle. Rising out of a gauzy synth sweep come rattling, low-slung bass movements. With precise, tickling percussive hits draped in shifting, foggy textural shrouds, this trippy, higher-tempo track toes the line between enticement and unease with uncanny confidence.
Closing out the EP is a warmly glowing, meandering, wide-eyed paean to a certain romantic audacity. The plodding, gently propulsive drums and sliding bass of Intrepid Smiles [Golden] could easily have gotten bogged down in the oozing, crepuscular sentimentality of its soaring, romantic synths, but instead this EP wraps with a certain cinematic spark, perfect for both dancing in lockstep and weepy embraces.
Three digital tracks supplement the vinyl release. With Hedera, Furtive conjures another billowing textural wash of staggered, thumping psychedelic techno, steadily mounting into a cresting wave of rippling oscillations. Leafy Spinach is a salad of dreamy bouncing, of twinkling and winding bubbles, a track that would be outright goofy if it wasn’t for the seriousness of the bass punches. Wet Glass is a romantic, cinematic dreamscape - a warm, glowering collage of snippets of field recordings with uplifting, ghostly story-time synths and spectral piano plinking.
credits
released May 5, 2023
Production and Mix: Furtive
Mastered & Lacquer Cutting: Marco at Analog Cut
Art: Furtive
Graphic design: CM-Dp
Distribution: Rubadub
A&R: Bailey Rogers
Descriptive novelization: Furtive
Furtive is a full-gonzo polychromatic rave conjurer. A Philadelphia-based producer, DJ, and event organizer, Furtive
manifests the rave with warping, slippery textures and eclectic asides - both in their studio work and in DJ sets. Furtive helps foster underground community as a DIY nightlife organizer, having previously helped to put on some of Washington, DC's zaniest techno parties....more
Inspired by his family and the Adriatic Sea, the Italian producer crafts his ambient techno with a palpable emotional undercurrent. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 18, 2024