Moscow-born, London-based producer Lokiboi has spent years simmering within the internet-specific realm of the production world, steadily building his reputation through SoundCloud posts, remixes, and collaborations—not to mention his consistentpresence in our Downloads section over the years. Though the Russian transplant already has a handful of small, mostly net-label releases to his name, his first record of 2013, Late Reaction, seems to signal his biggest leap as a producer and first concrete statement as an artist.

During his gradual ascent, Lokiboi has toyed with a number of different slants on bass-minded dance music, but Late Reaction is squarely aligned with house and garage. The title cut and the Citizen-featuring “Love Saves the Day” are glossy exhibtions of four-on-the-floor house. Both tracks come infused with a proper touch of London shuffle—thanks to the swung hats on “Late Reaction” and the extra kicks pumping underneath “Love Saves the Day”—and organize their basslines and chords into precise patterns which fit around the drum programming, making the various rhythmic shifts the focal point of each production. When left to his own devices, Lokiboi builds a more machinist tune, assembling interlocking patterns of sharp percussion and anchoring them with a slowly gliding bassline. But on the EP’s sole collaborative effort, Citizen makes his presence felt, giving “Love Saves the Day” a more charming touch with some smoothed-over chords and a luscious bassline.

The EP’s remaining cuts are much more rooted in garage structures. They both employ combinations of slithering chords and slow-brewing atmosphere similar to their counterparts, but “Help Yourself” digs into a much deeper groove, with heavy sub-kicks filling in the space between finely coordinated layers of skittering hats and jumping rim shots. On the other hand, “Keep On Loving Me Dry” excels in the relative sparseness of its arrangement. Lokiboi gives his closing track enough room for the sinking mood, conjured by bluesy chords and simple vocal repitching, to take hold. It may not all add up to be the most distinctive of releases, but it’s still hard to pick a bone with any of these productions on their own. Lokiboi still has room to grow as a producer, but Late Reaction is a strong indication of his ability to continue pushing his long-present promise into increasingly stronger tunes.