Socks & Sandals: Rishi Saturn EP
Microcosm

Ezekiel Honig's Anticipate label has garnered ample praise—justifiably—for its inaugural quartet of releases but one shouldn't forget that his other label, Microcosm, is still operating too. Sporting cover illustrations that easily could have found their way into The Wind in the Willows, Socks and Sandals (Nicholas Sauser and Clark ov Saturn) follow its 2006 Shatter EP with the equally enticing Rishi Saturn 12-inch.

The A-side epic, “Spaced,” seemingly distills all of the Microcosm trademarks into one supremely swinging, nine-minute opus. The piece royally shimmies and shakes as voice edits, whistling, percussive accents, and xylophone interjections spill onto a relentlessly pumping, bass-heavy groove. Comparatively speaking, “Pura Vida” is less a swinger and more a strutting, tech-house stomper. Chaperoned by high-end percussive chirps, bass lines slide into a dense undertow of crackle while a voice lackadaisically intones the title over and over. The bass burrows even more deeply and groans ever more humongously in “Lucidril Remix” until a charging house pulse takes center stage, with hi-hats and handclaps that seem to pull the track out of the swamp it inadvertently stumbled into. Clothing their heavy rhythm tracks in dense sheets of crackle, voice edits, and hand percussion, Socks and Sandals produce tracks that exemplify both a light-hearted frivolity and a seriousness of compositional purpose—serious fun, in other words, and a great reminder of Microcosm's special sound.

February 2008