- The fact that Hamburg deep house producer Moomin is such a devoted fan of hip-hop might seem strange at first, but something about "Beautiful As You Are" reeks of DJ Shadow lost in the Dial archives. The track coasts on a kick pattern coated in thick tape hiss and dainty little chord runs, and every once in a while a bite-sized horn sample floats through the bar like a wisp of fragrant smoke, the kind of thing Shadow and his ilk might have seized on in the '90s. It's a cheesy little sample, really, but in Sebastian Genz' capable fingertips it's impishly charming.
The two B-sides on his third Aim release act largely the same way—they don't add much to the Moomin playbook, but they're executed with such ease you can almost picture Genz moodily puffing a cigarette as he knocks out these drifting lucid dreams one by one. "Don't Fly If It's Foggy" smacks of a stoned Kassem Mosse with its shiftless, walking bassline, but it's not long before Moomin lets the clouds roll in on a humid wind of sampled strings. Finally "She Said She Won't Be That Long Away" takes the jazz theme to its reasonable conclusion, pivoting on an acoustic bass sample that's actually the EP's loudest, brashest sound. Don't worry: Ivories tinkling far in the distance provide that by-now patented Moomin fairy dust to take the whole thing to a realm that's otherworldly yet still distinctly earthy.
Tracklist A Beautiful As You Are
B1 Don't Fly If It's Foggy
B2 She Said She Won't Be That Long Away