- Though only four releases deep, the Galdoors label is well on the way to developing a distinctive aesthetic. 12-inches from Audio Werner, Elgato and Junes all took a minimal stance on house music, displaying a lightness of touch, a crisp sound palette and an understanding that invention can thrive in subtle details. The label's latest, from newcomer Tames, shares these values, though the producer has a little trouble making minimalism work for him.
The meandering, subaquatic synths and gentle offbeat snares of "Vivid Elements" suggest an admiration for Joey Anderson. The results are pleasant enough, but Tames hasn't quite nailed that sense of poise that makes a good Anderson production so compelling. "Episodes" is better—it has that sense of cavernous space you get by emphasising the very low (a rounded kick drum, a mooching bassline) and very high (layers of snare drum filigree), while in the midrange an understated hook just about pulls everything together. Still, it's only really "Squeeze" that achieves liftoff. Its percussive framework is much the same, but in place of muted atmospherics we're given a lithe synth figure, leaping and stuttering with pleasing unpredictability. Here the extreme simplicity of the arrangement heightens the tension rather than lessening it. That it's the EP's only instance of funk doesn't hurt, either.
TracklistA1 Vivid Elements
B1 EP isodes
B2 Squeeze