Sepalcure: Love Pressure
Hotflush Recordings

Sepalcure, a captivating new Praveen Sharma project with Machinedrummer Travis Stewart, hits the sweet spot indeed on the debut EP Love Pressure and its four future-thinking fusions of deep house, funk, and dubstep. The title track sets the bar high with a totally fresh blaze of vocal fragments—“takin' me,” “love,” et al.—and delirious wails woven into a sugar rush of deep house chords and buoyant pulsations. In “Down,” a soulful vocal line (“deep in the underground”) ricochets atop a thrusting house groove and surging synthetic chords. Easing the intensity for a moment or two, Sepalcure slows the tempo for the lascivious swing of “Every Day of My Life” and brings some thudding bass wobble with it for the ride. Though nowhere near as feverish as the opening tracks, the tempo picks up for the smooth closer, “The Warning,” which oozes spectral radiance in its marriage of harp strums and elegant piano flourishes. It'd be interesting to hear whether Sepalcure would be able to sustain the EP's high-quality level for the length of a full album. Here's hoping we get a chance to find out.

June 2010