Seuil CFS EP
The Parisian producer continues his imprint's run of good form with a tight four-tracker.
The Parisian underground has long had a fascination with house music, churning out generations of producers who capture a certain je ne sais quoi. Its legacy continues in Alexis Benard (a.k.a. Seuil), the head honcho at Eklo who has been responsible for a decade’s worth of polished, groovy four-to-the-floor rhythms.
After spending some time flirting with a more emotional character in his tunes (take “Ultravision” or “Sub Boogie Drama,” for example), Benard has since locked into tighter, more minimal sounds, a trait also evident in his selection of artists recently added to the label, including the likes of Justin Zerbst, Vadim Svoboda, or Cristi Cons. His latest release, CFS, is no exception. The most full-bodied of the lot is opener “CFS 1,” which is defined by its undulating bass and light hi-hats—a pleasant, bouncy tech house tinged tune. It is in his other offerings that things become a bit more unorthodox. Heavy on synth work is “CFS 2,” a choppy number that plays with robotic, electro-influenced chimes (a style very in vogue at present).
On a similar tip is “CFS 3,” which also toys with similar metallic jingles, ringing over an unpredictable bassline, which somehow all slots together seemingly effortlessly. Record-digging maestro Etienne, now based in Berlin and turning his hand to studio work (with a couple of high quality releases on Noir&Son and Undersound to date), offers a more pacy remix of “CFS 3” that packs much more of a punch than the original.