Uner - Palua

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  • The depth of the kick on "Pallene," the A-side of veteran Spanish producer Uner's Palua EP, is worth appreciating all by itself. It dominates the space of the track's long beginning, and you figure you're in for a drum exercise, with an ascending, rolling percussion line making up the hook. Uh-uh. Softly, a five-note electric-piano line nudges into the picture, and by holding rocksteady, anchors a lot of playful activity around it. Crisscrossing keyboard lines (Latin in feel even if the beat is an unchanging four), sweeping cymbals dotted here and there, the beat dropout—none of it perturbs that little tune. It lodges in your head, and sounds better every time it comes back in—into the song, into a set, into your headphones. Ditto the soft, rounded congas that carry it out. Those congas reappear early on the B-side, "Cocoua," along with what I'll take to be a treated cowbell and a lot of little clicks and sweeps—all of it mere dressing to the main thump, at least until an elastic little bass riff joins in. This is a slow-build, slow-unbuild track—gradual, patient, unfussy, but with each ratcheting-up clearly marked. If you can play to the crowd and keep things interesting at the same time, do it.
  • Tracklist
      A Pallene B Cocoua
RA