soundcloud.com/tavadiscs/tvd001-baat-ep
The first release on Tava Discs arrives courtesy of label-founder Beigean, confidently establishing their remit of discovering and showcasing charismatic house and techno from a gritty, DIY perspective. Influenced by a diverse joyful musical upbringing of East Coast hip-hop, turn of the millennium tribal techno, UK bass, Punjabi folk and Bollywood disco, each of the four tracks on Beigean's EP flawlessly but daringly weave each of these specific musical avenues into hyper-specific and utterly physical tapestries of sound, road-tested and engineered to turn open-minded dancefloors outside of their heads.
The record’s unrelenting focus on groove is immediately established by a vintage disco bassline on Baat, one that's suddenly submerged in reverb and reintroduced with a stuttering, echo-laden female vocal chop, one of many elements cribbed from the vast, all-vinyl Bollywood soundtrack archive of Beigean's father. Here, these audience-pleasing chorus lines are respectfully blended with a very different purpose, building to a memorable disco climax and stitched together with an authentic reel-to-reel appeal. On Kyaa, a punchy, admirably bouncy bassline rides another obscure musical number, one that's soon buried under a cresting wave of acidic feedback, creating a weightless moment of sensory rave pleasure from the most unexpected of sources.
Beginning the reverse trip, 'Geet' takes things in a tougher, trippier and more percussive direction, constantly pushing and pulling tension built around corresponding male and female vocal samples. Here, a tough UK attitude immediately makes its presence known in the hard-hitting drum work, playfully offset by grandiose and grainy interjections from the vintage peak of Indian cinema. The EP concludes with 'Mein', arguably the more uncompromising and dense moment of the record, creating a constantly unfolding and kinetic distillation of Beigean's notable influences, and delivering each transformed through layers of reverb and distortion, then uplifted by a cosmic, Buchla-like synth interjection.
Rooted in a cross-generational and cross-cultural heritage specific to UK dance and rave culture, Beigean's debut EP announces a new talent with an irresistible perspective.
released September 28, 2018
Mastered by Precise.
Distributed by Unearthed.
Insert by Josef.
