Benedikt Frey Ghosts

It is German producer Benedikt Frey who is next up on Dutch label Creme Organization with a fully formed four track EP entitled Ghosts. In just three years, Frey has established himself on quality labels like Live At Robert Johnson and Mule, as well as on his own Label Love Pain Sunshine & Rain, and each of those releases has summonsed up a different vibe, from kinky techno to moody deep house, but always with a truly unique melody, hook or texture somewhere in the groove. 'Can't Joke With Dexy' is the opener here and is a bumpy, edgy house cut with tense and nervy keys jangling above a roughshod drum line. It grows ever more dark and comic and things roll on before 'Faith' is a more breezy, airy house groove. The drums here dance a nimble dance, thin synths and emotive chords all come in rich layers and a lo-fi percussive line proves how Frey can conjure up idiosyncratic sounds with ease. Like its title suggest, 'Ghosts' is a hauntingly atmospheric track with icy hi hats, pixel thing and hugely melancholic chords and harmonic bells all adding a sense of calm and serenity to turbulent drums deep down below. Lastly, 'Scale' is a sub 100bpm crawler with fat elastic synths strung up between lazy kicks. Two filtered spoken word lines add plenty of weirdness to this soupy bit of cosmic seduction and round out an EP that is stuffed with fresh ideas and great sonic invention.