iO Sounds & Lakosa - Absense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZePfj96b5g
Forming the straight-banger high point of their thumping Mindgames EP, this shimmering floor-filler from London collaborators iO Sounds and Lakosa is a darkly crystalline work of twitchy, body-popping glory that works as both an otherworldly mood-shifter and a plutonium club hit, combining lush-sounding, cerebral synth lines with a shuffling and fragmented garage-esque beat. Absense is a piece of future garage without the genre’s more ponderous and sentimental aspects; instead, through its contagious rhythm and sumptuous semi-human vocal melody, it creates a feeling of steely cool and nefarious-sounding modernism. Sounds of an electronic netherworld still permeate through, however - from the gurgling pad hits that flutter in and out of existence, to the squelching drops of treacle bass, to the mournful, old-school, string-section ending synthline that brings the track to an emotionally thick finale. Heavy and dramatic, this track is an instant classic, beating itself through your skull and into your sense of rhythmic appreciation with forceful aplomb and an elegantly dystopian style.
