Savage Beauty EP Paradise Circus
- Year
- 2022
In a natural extension of their continued quest for scintillating sonics, Das Spezial open the doors on their first invited guests from outside their core circle of audio alchemists. Originally hailing from Tehran but now residing in Venezuela, Paradise Circus are a husband-wife partnership who share the Spezial instinct for grandiose electronica with a fierce spirit and a heavy-beating heart. This musical signature runs in tandem with their Persian heritage and a fine collection of rugs – all crucial tethers to the familial bond they now share with their new label. Savage Beauty is a fitting name for the Paradise Circus sound – a tumultuous rip curl where brooding orchestration gets expressed through advanced synthesis. There’s an underlying classical quality to the compositions, but in every strafing arp, ranging phaser and crushing beat this is a modern electronica record through and through. ‘Avocet’ soars like the titular bird it pays tribute to, ‘Titan’ shifts orbs of monophonic waveforms and pealing overtones like a celestial constellation, ‘Burl’ lays down jackhammer drum machines and gaseous blooms of melancholy melodics, and ‘Purple Bustard’ sweeps through layers of noise-etched harmonic intensity on its course for the stars. Cementing the meeting of hearts and minds, Das Spezial lay down their own ‘Orchestral Mix’ of ‘Titan’ which strips away the percussion and keeps up the pressure, letting the fundamental musicality in the original version cut through a densely populated swarm of sonorous sprites. Building a bridge back to the club roots of the collective, London jungle savant Tim Reaper climbs aboard for a wholly different version of ‘Titan’ which teases the drama of the original in the mix with his razor-sharp line in breakbeat chops and captivating atmospherics. Savage Beauty EP is another gold-plated rivet in the Spezial machine – a cybernetic organism with enough heft to move a mountain and the sensitivity to tell you why it should be moved.