- Plow through the latest from wee Netherlands imprint Purple Maze once, and you're likely to wonder what happened. Did the space cake finally wear off? Did that chocolate bar really stanch the bad trip? The release in question—from Prime Numbers-affiliated master of smooth Fudge Fingas, of all people—seems suspiciously high on life at first brush, if only because Yør, the mysterious producer at the helm of the last two Purple Maze releases, took the label to a deeply paranoid juncture.
A few listens more, however, reveal there's still plenty off-kilter with the Amaranthine Labyrinth EP, an exceptionally strong release from a newly energized Fudge Fingas. It's high, sure, but maybe just on sugar. "Eyes on the Prize" bounces like Erik & Fiedel and samples as manically as Soundstream, but the man born Gavin Sutherland brings an original vision despite these obvious touchstones. "NTNLNC" opens in Yør's low-passed fog, but Sutherland deftly ushers us out of the cold and into a Technicolor carnival, somehow building to even more frenzied heights than the track that precedes it.
Things calm down somewhat once the record's flipped. "Kinski" evokes like the labyrinth in the EP's title in sonic form: interlocking blurs of melody loop back on each other, with a wonderfully shifty beat left as breadcrumbs. By "As It Should Be," Fudge Fingas has settled back into the sound that defined his Now About How album, implying we were never in the sober hands we thought we were. Whatever the case, I think we'll all have what he's having.
Tracklist A1 Eyes On The Prize
A2 NTNLNC
B1 Kinski
B2 All As It Should Be