Dinky - Time to Lose It

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  • Seth Troxler has been throwing around the term "underground pop" to describe the Visionquest label's quirky, often melodic dance music. It's a clunky term—vague, quixotic, possibly useless—but Dinky's new EP nevertheless indicates the way the label is looking increasingly towards song-craft for inspiration. Case in point, "Time to Lose It," the most curious offering here, in which Dinky multi-tracks her voice into a massive virtual choir. The squelchy funk bass sounds a little like Isolée circa We Are Monster; the shuffling, syncopated groove reminds me a little bit of Luciano in his Lucien-N-Luciano guise. (Dinky's palette has an earthier feel, however—wood and metal instead of glitch and ping.) She sings a slow, soft melody, almost a lullaby. But it feels communal rather than intimate. "This Is Your Heart" opens with a burst of curiously harmonized voices, but it's more conventional, with a lazy, loping house groove and a linear progression. Or lack of progression, really—aside from an occasional chord change, its arpeggios cycle in place. Depending upon your mood, it might feel mysterious, or simply unsure of where to go next. But on "Teka," Dinky proves that she knows how to string out a taut, percussive groove that never quits. The EP's strongest cut, it's also its trackiest, right down to drums reminiscent of Freaks or Swag. There are no changes, per se—no bridge, no chorus, no middle eight. It just builds and builds. It reminds me a little bit of Glasser, even if they don't actually sound all that alike—it's something about the richness of the timbres and the heat generated by electronic and acoustic elements when they collide.
  • Tracklist
      A Teka B1 This Is Your Heart B2 Time to Lose It
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