Artist: Damian Schwartz
Title: The Dancing Behavior
Label: A Harmless Deed Records
Release Date: April 25th 2016
Cat. Number: AHD010

 

Tracklist

Everything I Am
Frau Odd
The Present
A Sea
Minor Moves
No Waltz
Tropic Cascade
A Remark I Made
A World of Issues

 

Entitled ‘The Dancing Behavior’, the nine track affair is the natural next step after three essential 12”s on his own A Harmless Deed label since 2012. This is where Schwarz feels most comfortable right now, and is where he makes a starry, melodic brand of electric deep house.
Though inspired by house and techno greats from the usual American hotbeds, he also puts to use his own formal background in jazz, composition and bass whenever producing electronic music. In fact, composition is vital to him, and he admits, ‘I always start with a melody that later defines the track’s progression, even if the melody itself is not exactly present to start with.’

‘The Dancing Behavior’ won’t be his first album – that came under his own name back in 2008 – but it is one that distils all of his influences, from Atkins to Konders, Drexciya to Gemini, into his own singular and abstracted sound. As a DJ with more than a decade’s worth of gigs at places like Output, Berghain and Robert Johnson under his belt, Schwarz knows how to move the floor but, across this album, manages to create a real sense of emotion and adventure that also works at home.

After a bit of spaced out ambient and the words ‘everything I am’ echoing around between pixel tin synths, ‘Frau Odd’ slips into a jittery house groove with dancing key and smooth chords. ‘The Present’ has rooted rubber drums and more gorgeous, retro sounding synths and ‘A Sea’ is a mid tempo, mechanical groove with brilliant melodies that really feel sad and forlorn. ‘Minor Moves’ has melodic rain falling down its face as broken drums churn down low, ‘No Waltz’ is a three minute arrangement of slithering lines, church like chords and one finger bass and ‘Trophic Cascade’ glows like the Aurora Borealis above a nicely driven drum line. Finally, ’A Remark I Made’ finds Schwartz letting his machines get freaky and weird as he coat them in an eerie atmosphere that never lets you settle, and last track ‘A World of Issues’ features many layers of lush and musical synths that really dance and ooze genuine feelings of joy, optimism and hope.

A complete statement that works on both head and heel, ‘The Dancing Behavior’ is the sound of a producer with lots to say and his own special language with which to say it.

 

Links

www.aharmlessdeed.com
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