Floriana vs. Màcro: Heleylah Sunset
dalaki

Heleylah Sunset by Floriana vs. Màcro (dalaki label founder Joerg Schuster and an unidentified partner from Madrid, Spain ) pitches eight lush electronic tracks halfway between deeply textured ambient and evocative, flowing microhouse. Rather than being barreled over, the listener melts into a warm bath of vaporous textures and billowing tones. Synth accents, Rhodes chords, and bass fragments swim in a relaxed, static-laden mix that references techno, microhouse, dub, electronica, and soul jazz without favouring one over another.

Kissed by silken strings, “Easy” offers a sunlit, slightly funky fusion of soul jazz and microhouse while the ten-minute “Rètro” is naturally the most elaborate example of Floriana vs. Màcro's relaxed and soulful style. Heleylah Sunset occasionally calls to mind the work of other artists: traces of Vladislav Delay and Gas bob to the surface in “Higher,” for example, while rhythmically arranged voice snippets in the burbling microhouse of “End” suggest a less frenetic Akufen. For the record, dalaki's sparing no expense vis-à-vis presentation by packaging the disc in a black collector's box that includes buttons, a sixteen-page photo-booklet, photo-cards, and a logo cardboard stencil.

February 2008