I must be honest about one thing. I’ve been feeling quite…well, not disappointed but a little deceived, about the majority of the tracks and EP’s that was dropping in my mailbox and soundcloud account lately. Well, actually, there was nothing that bad, but there was also nothing that good to make me feel like I wanted to share it just the next minute.
All that changed last week when a new project, and particularly, a new song came to my attention. It’s called stages and it’s from the recent project Enterprise.
Behind Enterprise hides Nico Raibak, a Mexico City based musician, producer and DJ moving in “SciFi, New Tech, Disco Beats” ground. His most visible history as a producer starts in 2009 releasing some techno and electronic oriented tracks like “Theme From Rage” or “XGF” both of them signed as Nraibak. The new signature emerges more recently, about 8 months ago, and with this new personage comes a whole new sound approach as you’ll notice in his most recent work. Already as Enterprise, Nico does some remix work on massive hits like Boney M’s Daddy cool, Groove Armada’s RJ’s Theme and the classic Night Fever by the Bee Gees.
As I was saying, Nraibak mutated to Enterprise and the way it sounds is, not a lot, but quite different from the early days. Stages EP, and Stages track in particular, are a clear approach to a brighter sound, closer to French-Touch and Nu-Disco. Sounds to me like a very positive change. Stages EP sounds like a all package compilation. It’s a five track EP with the original Stages and the track remixes by Sohight and Stereocool, and Sync with a remix by Luminair.
Stages is truly a powerful track, full of elements that took me back to an early era of the Nu-Disco thing. In some ways it sounds a lot like the kind of music the Discotexas guys were making back in 2009 like Xinobi’s BMX or Lover In Me by Moullinex. A really cheerful conga sequence with a smooth synth on top, at the beginning, then evolving with a blistering arpeggio bass line…BAM! You feel like you’re in some Knight Rider episode. Some mighty fat synth riffs fill up the composition and a groovy voice sampling to finish it off takes you off the ground. Am I Dancing or levitating. What a sweet doubt. Sohight gives the track a joyful touch with some buzzy synth and piano sounds. An great option for any late afternoon beach party. Stereocool‘s remix sounds much more SyFi. An intro with some echoed voices and a dark bass that suddenly are replaced by a really fat and voluptuous bass, kicks and some ruff style synths. The last touch is a simply divine synth solo reminding me of some saxofone solo from any 80′s classic like Sade’s Smooth Operator. What a trip.
The other track from this debut project is Sync. Just by listening to the first ten seconds of it, the track name immediately made sense for me. The intro really sounds like some on-board computer trying to sync just before the take off. The counter goes down…and we’re off to some journey across the universe. Sync really makes it easy to associate with a fictional environment in Space. The “robot talk” original sound, the chopped synth breaks, the epic crescendo synths. It’s all there. Luminaire turns it all around. A House rhythm and a slower pace gives a all new dimension to Sync but also exploiting all the little SyFy singularities of the original. Isn’t that what we look for in a remix?
As a whole, Stages EP is a true positive surprise. For taking me back a few years in the Nu-Disco production history, but mostly, for the simplicity, purity and non-pretentious way of making a dance track. It seems like, sometimes, when you try to point in a certain direction, musically talking, it doesn’t sound the way you wanted. The best way to do it then, seems to be the simplest. Basic but strong sound elements put together just the way you feel like they should. That’s the way music will sound on the listener side. Right to the heart. No add-ons. Worked on me.
Stages EP is out from now on. Released by the recently formed label from Paris, Free Form Label.
Here at Golden Scissors, we’re really enthusiastic an proud to share the launch of Stages EP. Grab it here for free and enjoy while it’s fresh.
