Arnaud Le Texier comes out of the box swinging and punching with well-crafted, slammin’ Techno grooves on his latest offering, “Baryon” EP, on Soma.
Le Texier has been in the game for a long time and has had previous releases on Affin, Edit Select Recordings, Suara, and of course, Soma Quality Recordings. His prior release on Edit Select’s label was the album “Dial Down” which featured fast-moving and slowly evolving hypnotic lines and chunky-patterned groovers but with an overall clean and well-put-together, balanced mixing style on his tracks that are never too clinical, but very tidy.
Here too on the Soma “Baryon” EP release, there’s a very strong and tightly kept mixing style, but it is also heavily aimed towards making the dancefloor move. It’s hard and fast enough to appeal to the Hard Techno crowd yet grooving enough for the proper Techno purists. The title track is the thesis statement for this, throwing down the hammer and giving very infectious classic Techno aesthetics at the same time.
“Keep On” evokes a very sweaty and packed dancefloor for that time in the night when fists are raised and irises are as big as saucers. It keeps things moving, with artistic sound design choices, while the groove timing is very insistent and persistent. “Terminus” is equally insistent but recalls his successful and slowly modulating lines found in his “Dial Down” album, and the real standout in the track are some superbly crafted high hats and rides. The ride cymbal in particular is just, for lack of a better word, really nice, and perhaps a possible atonement for the ‘90s/early ‘00s slapdash use of abrasive 909 rides that had a lasting impression on many older DJ’s ability to hear anything above 16khz. The last track, “Capital,” has a very early ‘00s funk to it as well, delving into the history of the genre somewhat and bringing up the best of all the old styles to present.
Summing up, the “Baryon” EP is a great direction for Arnaud Le Texier, and it is truly some of the most dancefloor-oriented Techno at present—full of force, aesthetic focus, and sound design. Additionally, the grooves are so tight and really easy to dance to. It will surely be in many DJ’s top picks for some of the greatest anthems you’ll be hearing around the world from now until the end of the year and beyond.
This release is currently out on all digital streaming platforms, and as an exclusive on Beatport as of the 13th. The full release will be featured on Bandcamp and elsewhere on October 27th.
-Sean Ocean
Check out Dirty Epic music recommendations here.
Listen to our podcasts here.
Find out more about our Events here.
Listen to our review picks here.
