Wiki and Oneplus follow up their excellent ‘Room 29’ EP from last year with their second EP on Spanish label Sub-Urban. This EP follows a similar pattern to the last one, with one vocal house cut, one downtempo track, and a melodic techno number to close.
The highlight of the EP, for my money, is Wiki and Oneplus’s edit of French singer/songwriter Pierre Mottron’s ‘Comfortable’. It’s the marriage of piano and voices that makes this so special, with the most touching moments arranged around the refrain “Oppressive walls/stretching their arms to reach/the blue canvas which/no longer gives any signs of life”. Wiki and Oneplus turn Mottron’s shuffling indie-pop sound into a gloriously lovely and contemplative house record, playing up the catchier elements of the vocals, allowing the bass to parallel the piano throughout, and throwing in some lovely chiming melodies at the peak moments for good measure. It’s drawn-out intro should ensure that when the dust settles on Ame’s (admitted fantastic) remix of Sailor and I this is destined to kick off many a set, while the final minute lets the bass drop out and drifts the other musical elements over a kick drum, which should provide key-mixers with a opportunity to create some really special moments.
‘Cycles’ floats into existence with a gentle, hypnotic intro, before gentle percussion and a growling bass part take over. Glassy arppegiated melodies are the order of the day, but the highlight is the spanish guitar sequence introduced during the breakdown – I’m not sure this track would really have appealed to me all that much if this sequence weren’t such a delight.
Finally, we have ‘Efflorah’, which takes the EP into melodic techno waters. This reminded me of some of the lighter moments from Ryan Davis’s great debut album, with its warm, interlocking melodic parts. I’d have liked the track to have a bit more bite to it, but the cumulative effect of the layered melodies makes for pleasant listening indeed, and ends the EP on a fittingly strong note.
I praised Wiki and Oneplus’s last EP on Sub_Urban in large part because I admired the breadth that the two producers showed, and I can only repeat that here – once again they range over three very different styles without once sounding out of their comfort zone. ‘Comfortable’ is the EP’s best moment in my opinion, but it’s in excellent company here. 8.5/10
