Sharp – Solstice

After a fair old while in ibizan hibernation, Max & Maurizio return with a new album and a new (sort of) sound. Essentially what they have is, a nice and deedrah-ish bottom end, and over the top they layer sounds that are, at times, a little too “Ibiza”. As a case in point, Automatik opens the album up nice and heftily, and the melodies come in and take you a little by surprise. A wonderful drop at around the four minute mark sends it shooting off, and by the end you’re sat there with a smile on your face. Inner Space is a growlier affair, with a spacious elongated groove that has suggestions of the old Etnica sound creeping in. Eros and Machine both have very little to write home about, not really going anywhere and, in the case of the latter, seemingly having a shortage of ideas. Planet X immediately starts out with more attitude, more character, but it soon descends into a four-chord pattern which is very, very ibizan-anthem stylee. Delightfully, the chords are almost the same as Bloodhound Gang’s Nothing But Mammals (or whatever it’s called), but other than this there’s not much to be happy about. B.A.S. is much more like their older stuff and one of my favourite tracks on here. It’s riff-based, and has a groove that sucks you in. Title track Sharp had me in stitches. It starts brilliantly – you know when a tune kicks off and you just KNOW it’s going to be a good ‘un? So, a great melody and a vacuum-bass get it going nicely, and all looks pleasant. Until… until the chords come in, bringing everything crashing down into a cringeworthy state of pity and vomit, a chord pattern that smacks of jean michelle jarre. How we laughed. Phototonic is simply toss, it’s like Etnica are pretending to be Protoculture but where the latter’s melodies are at once emotive and subtle, these are neither and suggests that the track was the work of a bedroom-producer refractions-wannabe, and not from a duo who allegedly formed some of the greatest pieces of innovation this scene has ever witnessed. The 120bpm cliché that is Fade brings to a close an awkward album, that I really wanted and tried to like. I still maintain that Etnica are capable of so much more, but this is a real disappointment.