0311: The Experience EP
Concrete Cut

Though Concrete Cut's latest find, Polish producer 0311, has opted to issue his digital-only debut solo release under an enigmatic pseudonym, we can at least report that the individual involved has acted as an associate of the Warsaw-based Underground Perception collective. More importantly, we can also report that the five-tracker in question is a sweet collection indeed, one that'll surely satisfy listeners with a jones for deep, late-night garage.

The opener, “System,” rolls in on a serpentine wave of vapour, mist, and disembodied voices before the beats kick in, their uptempo snap strongly redolent of garage and two-step. Dreamy synth swirls lend the material a nocturnal, post-club feel even when the rhythms are drawing the material back towards the feverish intensity of the early evening. Burial fans will assuredly cotton to tracks like “Warsaw Dream,” “It's Not True,” and “White Shadows,” given 0311's penchant for boosting his beats with soulful vocal samples, even if his music eschews the moroseness festering at the center of Burial's black heart. Though soulful vocalizing spreads itself liberally across the track's surface, “It's Not True,” for instance, exudes an irrepressible spirit in the punch and swing of its buoyant groove. “White Shadows” elevates its melting house chords and celestial whisper with a sped-up vocal sample lifted from Rhianna's “Take a Bow,” while the more subdued “Late Nite” guides the dazed listener into the rainswept streets for the early morning trek home. It's an EP filled with promise for the 0311 music that presumably will come—whoever it might be piloting the ship.

January 2012