Depth Affect: Chorea
Autres Directions In Music

Depth Affect (Rémy Charrier, David Bideau, Frédéric Puren, Xavier Brunet ) returns with a twenty-three-minute twelve-inch vinyl EP that makes one hunger for a larger helping of the group's melodic hip-hop. The French outfit manages to cover a lot of ground in the six songs, with each one casting its gaze in a slightly different direction. The opening piece, “Dämmerung,” is German for “dawn,” so it's perfectly fitting that the quietly jubilant vibe stoked by the hip-hop instrumental is elevated by crisp beats and sparkling melodies. With the exception of “Amanecer,” the brooding electroacoustic rumination with which the EP ends, Chorea is chock full of low-end beats and shimmering synthetics, whether the track in question is an enticing vocal cut (the bleepy workout “Marine Eyelid”) or remix of an electro-poppy Populous & Short Stories original (“Man Overboard,” where Depth Affect adds its beat skills to lush vocal harmonies). The release also features a guest shot by LA rapper Riddlore? who adds rhymes to the group's chugging, synth-kissed groove in “Else's Vision.” The group isn't terribly prolific—Chorea is the first formal release since 2008's Hero Crisis album, which itself appeared two years after the debut full-length Arche-Lymb—so one hopes that the gap separating Chorea and the next Depth Affect album won't be too great.

November 2010