Ukrainian producer Indieveed makes his debut on Inlab with three new tracks, accompanied by remixes of the lead track from Peet and Max Cue.
‘Paradise’ gets things off to a very atmospheric start, with a pulsing bassline rising out of ghostly pads. But the track really gets down to business at the two minutes mark, when a catchy, swirling riff flares up, and the bassline plays a nicely complementary chord sequence. If I have a complaint here, it’s that some of the sounds used to lend the track atmosphere don’t quite cohere with the main musical parts as well as they might have done. However, it’s not too noticeable, and the main melody is just stunning, so overall this is a winner.
‘Aerial’ is up next, with phaser-fire dynamics and a brooding bassline setting up a vibrating, trancey melody. This is my least favourite of the tracks on here, since the melodic ideas are the weakest, and again some of the sounds chosen to run throughout the track never quite seem to gel with the main elements.
‘Dreamscapes’ is immediately much more to my taste, with a delicate melody unfolding from the track’s opening, leading to subterranean bass tones, crisp percussion, beautiful floaty pads, and a really strong metallic hook. This is possibly the best record Indieveed has made, and it’s had me completely hooked since I first heard it.
Max Cue’s remix of ‘Paradise’ gets off to an aggressive start, with heavy hi-hats and a menacing bass, but he soon adds on M83-ish synths and rippling melodies, while letting the bassline go mobile. I couldn’t help but feel that it loses too many of the original’s best melodic ideas, however, and replaces them with alternatives that are interesting, but not quite as compelling.
Peet’s version initially lets a hazy version of Indieveed’s melody hover over a low-slung groove, which sounds great, but unfortunately it immediately introduces a slightly annoying staccato repeated note that gallops throughout the rest of the track. There are still some lovely sequences in the remix, with great use of some seriously eighties-sounding synths, and a terrific moment around two and a half minutes before the end when the bass clicks into place underneath the synths. So there’s much to admire here, but I could have done with a bit more progression over the nearly nine-minute running time, and with a different choice of sound to add forward-drive to the remix.
I’ve been following Indieveed’s development ever since ‘Moth’ caught my ear on his debut release a couple of years back, and this EP offers up some of his best work so far, with ‘Dreamscape’ providing the clear highlight. Good stuff here from Inlab. 8/10
