Stathis Lazarides & Archie Hamilton – Numbmania EP on Moscow

Stathis Lazarides & Archie Hamilton – Numbmania EP on Moscow

Both Stathis Lazarides and Moscow label owner Archie Hamilton are hard-working DJs, gigging more than a human body can perhaps physically tolerate in any given week, month, or year. With “Numbmania”, I Voice decided to explore the age-old debate on the merits of working DJs who produce their own material as opposed to those who are solely studio rats. What we discovered is that studio rats can’t necessarily read a crowd all that well whilst chained to their sidechains and that DJs often get caught in a hypnotic groove that they can become too enamored with as we sit there waiting for even a simple chord progression to break the trance. There are some hints of that endless, mindless groove on this three-track collection of originals with one track noticeably weaker than the other two in that department. But overall, the atmosphere of these tracks is a dark, laidback one that has enough energy to spare this from the gaping k-hole that so many of these loopy groove tracks seem to fall into, never to be heard from again.

The title track sets the tone for the EP in terms of groove, something the subsequent two tracks don’t stray very far from, for better or worse. The beats are dark and cavernous, always a plus, but it also takes about three minutes of intro before the track really starts doing anything musical. The scant and wispy melodies are a huge benefit to the chugging tech-house groove and lift it from the minimal ghetto to techno salvation without ever reaching the promise land, which is somewhat of a disappointment considering how much obvious time and effort were put in to getting the drums on this track to sound just right.
“Manly” has a very apt title, there are some serious testosterone-influenced feats of strength here on the syncopated, tribal drum kick feel that anchors this track to the bedrock of groove. What is interesting here is that instead of taking the easy route on top in terms of melody, there is a way cool combo of white noise frequency sweeps and plinky-plonky abstract techno chords. It verges on minimal, which has loaded connotations, but the bare-chested bass line and thundering drums will have listeners readjusting that assessment and dance floors surely jumping for joy.

The EP ties every groove together tidily on the closing track, “Monophonie”. This is the stumbling, drunken guy shuffle groove motif that dominates the entire EP brought to fruition and it works. The other tracks on here require the firm hand of a qualified DJ to bring them to life, but this one takes the ideas presented in the previous tracks and makes them into an interesting leftfield musical statement, such a rarity these days in the world of tech-house. You can almost feel these guys telling each other, “Groove just ain’t enough here, we need to stretch out and shock the dance floor”. The result is a track that sounds like it was recorded inside a pre-1989 Bulgarian smelting plant complete with dissonant industrial sounds, buried in the mix of course, that send evil chills down the spine if you listen too closely. The final verdict on the debate is that the studio bound producer may bring high falutin’ music theory to the production table but the DJ is the one who is going to bring the flirtations with danger – both real and imagined and “Monophonie” is loaded with both, raising the bar on this EP from run-of-the-mill to inspired.

Feedback

Alex Celler - Excellent deep & dark grooves, will def play out for sure. Big ups & support!!
Alland Byallo – Nice and interesting, subdued cuts for more hypnotic moments. Feelin’ Numbmania and Manly quite a bit!
Andrew Grant – Manly original mix is special
Danny Howells – Superb .. three cool deep tripped-out killers, each one going in the box, many thanks!
DJ T - will download. thank you for good music!
Enzo Siragusa - Feeling Numbmania
Faster - Nice one Manly
Florian Kruse - great ep!
Floyd Lavine – awesome stuff Archie and Stathis this is great work guys . great to see Moscow is back .
Francois Kevorkian – “Manly” is the track I like the most in the bunch. Good rolling funky bass…
Little Hado - Nice EP, will play for sure – Numbmania is my fav. Thanks!
Luciano Esse - Manly is my pick! Really good track!!
Patrice Meiner – nice ones big ups!!! full support! love monophonie
Polarize – Numbmania!
Priku - Manly sounds good
Re-UP – Sound great, bomb EP!
Sam Russo – Cool Tunes… Archie never fails!!

Ibiza Voice review click here

Ibiza Voice Rating: 7/10

Released by: moscow records

Release/catalogue number: MOSCOW007

Release date: Sep 3, 2012

Artist: Stathis Lazarides & Archie Hamilton
Title: Numbmania EP
Label: Moscow records

Tracklist

Numbmania
Manly
Monophonie

Links

Moscow Records
Stathis Lazarides bio
Stathis Lazarides RA
Stathis Lazarides Facebook
Stathis Lazarides SoundCloud

Archie Hamilton Bio
Archie Hamilton RA
Archie Hamilton Facebook fan page
Archie Hamilton SoundCloud