- "Man of the moment" is a term any self-respecting artist must wince at. After all, what happens when that moment elapses? Burak Sar, AKA SIS, had his resplendent moment in the sun. In fact, he had himself almost a year. His "Nesrib" and "Trompeta" singles were both among the biggest of 2008. However, 2009 saw no such theatrics from the Turkey-born, Germany-based producer, choosing instead to attempt an establishment of a sonic groove, with varying degrees of success.
The Connaisseur imprint (which itself enjoyed a blast period of popularity during 2008) are the latest in a long-ish line to host Sar's material, and the Lola EP finds both parties ticking over in fairly decent shape. A-side "Linda" is a neat and compacted little club number that rolls with elementary drums, and a red-ish plume of delayed synthesis, giving things a classic Connaisseur "minmal trance" feel. As you may have gathered from much of his previous output, Sar has a propensity for manipulated vocals, which in this case means a Spanish woman gets shoved though a noise gate whilst her male counterpart mopes around almost inaudibly in the back.
The flipside "Lola" meanwhile, suffers from the same affliction of over-quantized drums, but hits home thanks to a far more invigorating lead line. Through a gratifying combination of warming distortion, elongated reverb tails and, most importantly, a spasmodic arpeggiator, the sound twists itself enough to maintain an affection for the duration, while its bassline partner does the dirty work in the trench down below it. He may not be on the verge of a world takeover as we perhaps once thought, but "Lola" is evidence enough that Sar will be enjoying "moments" for a good while yet.