- Velvety deep house motifs, stuttering footwork flourishes and gripping bass collide in Deft's music. On "Emeralds" the Croydon producer, born Yip Wong, begins with a clanking beat—there are hints of Lorde's "Royals" about it—then unleashes shrill arps and bursts of footwork on top. Better still is the schizoid mélange of squelching bass, broken beats and ambient mist that encircle "A Little Kiss."
"Octavia" suffers a tad compared to "A Little Kiss," but it's a perfectly agreeable slice of bass-leaning house. The most overtly footwork-oriented cut on the EP, "Perky," is a blend of corkscrew bass and searing analogue chords. It comes ahead of the brief and idiosyncratic closer "On The Other Side." Opening with a crackly sample from '60s pop standard "Love Is Blue," it segues into a brief, off-kilter bit of hip-hop. Deft may eventually settle on a particular direction, but right now his inclusive approach is more a strength than a weakness.
TracklistA1 Emeralds
A2 A Little Kiss
B1 Octavia
B2 Perky
B3 On The Other Side (Interlude)