Monomachine: Flor De Loto EP
Immigrant Digital

UK-based imprint Immigrant initiates its digital-only label with a fresh EP of sweetly jacking tunes by Monomachine (Francisco Allendes and Inigo Oruezabal). The title cut's a gleefully jacking slice of microhouse, with tiny accents and lecherous voices adding spice to the dizzying synth motifs trapped within the song's maze. Inxec amps the jack and slathers on the grime in his swaggering “Flor De Loto” overhaul; though slightly more stripped-down than the original, the remix's android groove still kicks up a bubbly jaunt. Monomachine returns to bathe an hypnotically funky synth line in an acid bath in “Traveller,” occasionally ratcheting up the tension when the melody coils in on itself. The most expansive of the EP's four cuts, “A Long Day” merges Latin percussive funk, a strutting house pulse, ghostly chords, and croaking voices into a compelling whole before allowing acid flavour to seep under the doorframe. One of Flor De Loto's most distinguishing characteristics is that, while Allendes and Oruezabal till familiar stylistic ground, they do so in a restrained manner that's not unappealing.

October 2006