The latest outing on Marseille drum and bass label Hyperactivity Music comes in the form of an unexpected team-up from French multi-genre stalwart iZo Flight and New Orleans-born, Montpellier-based soul specialist Venuz Beats. The pair have banded together for the Worlds Away EP, featuring an appearance from Brooklyn singer and emcee T.R.A.C.
Commencing proceedings is the project’s title track, “Worlds Away”, which finds T.R.A.C. slipping seamlessly between song and rap, gracing a luscious production built upon silky keys, throbbing, reversed synths and stuporous rhythms. Without warning, the track catapults into darker drops, with clanking, metallic basslines and ambient breaths ebbing into existence to make for thrilling switch-ups.
Turning their hands to a more instrumental concoction on the sublime “Homeostasis”, iZo Flight and Venuz Beats deploy orchestral pads, minimal, echoing snatches of vocals and deft drum work to create a rich, textured bed of sounds, accented with smooth, jazzy noodling. Wrapping up the EP is the ambient and equally immersive roller “I’m Here”, centred around a recognisable vocal sample before snapping into gripping liquid crescendos furnished with swelling basslines, deep subs and old-school breakbeats.
