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-Teneya’s Take-

For the most part, when you seek out new electronic music, you’re listening for one of two reasons. About 80% of the time you’re looking for something to enjoy – perhaps while you drive to work or type up the end of your Skrillmau5 fan fiction (I don’t recommend Googling that). Regardless of what you do with it, you’re checking out electronic music for the same reasons your soft grunge-inclined friends are checking out Bring Me the Horizon: You enjoy the music.

But I’d estimate about 20% of the investigative listens electronic tracks get are from people looking for something they can play live, or something they can sample; mainly, DJ’s. And the high-and-mighty, who want to argue the already pointlessly debated topic of what a “real DJ” even is, can spare themselves the argument because this is a music review, and therefore it applies to the most liberal definition of anyone with a cross-fader and a couple of four/four-time tracks.

Get to the point, Teneya!

Ah, yes. My point. Almost went off on an anger-filled tangent there, thanks for bringing me back!

My point is that for the most part, Calculon’s Feel EP (featuring Austin Speed, Sinistarr and Pawn) fits in right where that 20% are looking. It’s an EP you will love if you are a DJ.

When you’re interested in making a crowd work, when you need to transition from one mood to another, when you’re working in a club for six hours without a break – Feel is just what you’re looking for. A simple, but interesting collection of beats you can use when a crowd’s in the swing of things and make interesting little transitions in and out of with high-profile tracks to get things going. But they’re not songs you play in the car; they’re not songs you show your friends to get them into Breaks or DnB.

These songs, while beautifully produced and mastered, are probably not going on your iPod, at least not the first two. “Back the Fuck Up” and “I Need You” are songs you might have in your library of playable material, but “Bloodfight” breaks the mold. In just that one song, Calculon proves not only his skills in proper mastering (which, due to its extreme rarity in more underground artists, is enough to make me sing their praises), but also his skills in creating a track that doesn’t make me sigh with indecisiveness when I try to think about it. It’s gritty. It stands out from the simple momentum of the rest of the EP. It’s a track I really, really like.

“Crush” is almost the same. While it doesn’t appeal to my personal tastes as much, it’s definitely a track that will pique the interests of your audience – be it your friends or a crowd. If you play it, someone will ask you what it is. And you can say in reply, “It’s a damn good track is what it is.”

While it may only hit your ears in a venue, Feel is an example for what the currently less popular subgenres of electronic music need to sound like. It boasts an interesting choice of sounds, a clear, concise, distinct style, performance playability and dash of “I definitely want to play this while I’m going for my morning run.” And to that end, if you’re into electronic music, you should check it out.

Calculon