The name Amir Alexander is a well known guy in our city, and a tag that those with an ear to the underground of all things House and Techno should already be familiar with. A solid history of high-quality and organic electronic cuts on the likes of Argot, Rekids, Deep Vibes, Third Ear and many more have laid the foundations for Amir’s reputation as an innovative and reliable source of dancefloor weapons. His latest output comes in the shape of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ a strong three-tracker EP that finds a home on Nite Grooves/King Street Sounds for a January 2020 release to kick off the new decade.
The lead track ‘Cock Blockers’ is a one man collaboration as Amir brings out his Ricky Spitzz alter-ego on the vocal work of track one. Amir throws down a classic organ bass lead with his own vocal phrases undergoing radical FX work to evoke an intergalactic sound signature that is intensified by the spacey synth bursts which slide and squirm up and down the frequency spectrum with pitch bends and modulation to melt the mind. Part throwback, part future-facing in style – the contrast is classic Amir Alexander and sets the scene for the package perfectly.
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ backs up the lead track, lowering the action to a more reflective tone that allows the kicks, deep ample bass and synth hits to breathe spontaneously. The extra space allows room for reverb and decay tails to hypnotise listeners into a dreamy state of bliss which is amplified by the classic House inspired padded strings which add to the daydream and leave you wondering where the 8 minutes that the track runs for dissolved into.
Wrapping up the EP is ‘Morning Prayer’ which ends the EP with another meditative and soulful groove for the afterhours gatherings. Deep melodic vocal groans carry the higher frequencies through as a swirling and constant chord seeps and glides around the kicks and bass, sliding with subtle LFO filter modulation to ingest the listener’s mind up into the atmosphere.
It’s another notch on Amir’s ever-growing belt of a catalogue and importantly marks the turn of the decade where the focus is future-facing with an influenced foot still rooted in the eras that made House and Techno the kings of electronic music. We take the best from behind us to combine with the now, to create a better future and Amir Alexander is doing exactly that, with drum machines and synthesizers.
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is out now on Nite Grooves/King Street Sounds and available at all leading electronic music stores.