dj plead: relentless trills

We probably weren’t aware at the time we first put out the tape, but 'Relentless Trills' really is one of the most intensely sensual, humid albums we’ve ever carried (let alone pressed up) - a masterpiece of all-tension-no-release slow moving dance music envisioned and realised with a single instrument - the Yamaha ‘Oriental’ keyboard, now somehow sounding x2 sweatier thanks to Rashad Becker’s transfixing new master. DJ Plead is making some of the most forward thinking club music of our time, and on 'Relentless Trills' he switches gears for an entirely different proposition - one mostly shorn of a kickdrum, instead unfurling it slow, infectious, and deadly for the stickiest 40 minutes of music you’ll hear this year. Recorded at home in Sydney, Plead dismantles his much-loved hard drum club style and drops the tempo, where he matches the waviest microtonal vamps with the signature, rhythmelodic lilt of his drums in a properly hypnotic style. Equally influenced by vintage dancehall riddims and the inspirational glow of CS + Kreme's psycho-ambient heartmelters, the results sound to our ears like an offshoot of Mutamassik releases for DJ/Rupture’s Soot, or Shackleton slowed to a hash-smoking drift and heading on a Mahraganat tip. A hazy introductory piece of autotuned vocals and digital bass prodding seduces from the front, with the vibe spilling out into deep, spaced-out dancehall pressure with deliriously strong works almost nodding to Timbaland and The Neptunes in ‘RT5’, closing on a mesmerising beatless highlight in ‘RT6’ to seal the deal. Classique? 100%. kool-aid red vinyl edition.