Pépe –   PBAL001

The Spanish producer Pépe’s music marries the heavyweight sound design of the hardcore continuum and the gossamer-like melodies of IDM. On his latest EP, inaugurating a new label Proper Balance, his tunes oscillate between cloud-searching beauty and proper dance floor weaponry. ‘Meow Meow’ starts with angular and syncopated drums and cartoonish bass pulses that call to mind Timedance. But Pépe slowly brings quivering chords to the fore of the track to add a final act of beauty. He takes the opposite approach on ‘Fen’d out’. Here, Barker-worthy synths skitter along until about halfway through, when he adds some bass face inducing subs.