Scary Faces

Returning to Bonzai Basiks with a stunning album, Eric Kanzler whips up an emphatic selection of quality sounds full of tech goodness.Kicking off we get the somewhat laidback and smoothly grooving “A Wake”, cool tech sounds and chords are coupled with a tight drum and bongo section with short vocal samples filling up the space, nice opener.”Greyscale” gets darker, vocal samples taken down an octave give this effect along with warbling synths, some real cool FX used on this one that adds a special taste to the tech sound.”Ice Came” is a solid minimal techno groove, super tight percs and drums with the odd effect on various blips and bleeps, perfect fodder for filling any set.”In Your Face” starts off with a cool vocal and classic techno sounds, the track builds up to a raw sound which again is quite minimal yet enough to get the mind indulged to layout of the sounds, brilliant stuff that is sure to get a lot of plays.Next up is “Oh Shake It” and that is exactly what will happen when you listen to this, you must shake it to this sound, it’s infectious. Retro sounding synths add a bounce here, well crafted percussions with crisp hats keep the rhythm flowing, big sound here for the big floors!The title track comes up next and midway through this album it does not disappoint. Sharp percs are coupled with a strangely eerie string and a toy box melody adds tension, suddenly darkness creeps in and you are locked in on this groove, top notch vibe here.”Hypnotiz” is the next track and it does just that, again Eric adds cool sharp hats and the arrangement slowly builds to huge heights with lots of fillers and then you find yourself deep inside the groove, a myriad of sounds invade your brain with much focus on the FX work on each sound. Heavy bass kicks in midway and it is now the hypnotizing begins, super track and for sure will be on a lot of playlists.”Fair Play” comes along with a more lighter feel to it, solid rhythm with drums doing all the work, cool quirky one shot sounds give the lighter edge here and creates an all round nice track.”Sleep Now” is an extension of the last track with a little more depth, this is evident with a more melodic approach and the addition of the dark vocal at various points, real nice work here and a cool contrast on the previous.”Sensivity” lays on the tech in huge doses, we have the familiar percs and drums with a slowly building detuned melody creating a stunning sequence of music, lots of cool FX are tweaked into the sounds resulting in a sublime look into the world of tech.Finally we have “La Secrete”, yet more awesome sharp percs and arrangement, quite experimental in most parts with the “movie score” like sequences.A very diverse collection of tracks that range from dark tech to minimal techno to experimental sequences and quite simply a superb piece of work from Eric.