[Underground Quality]

Within a few short years Anton Zap has made himself an indispensable part of deep house and has displayed a growing talent for mining late night emotion from his productions. The aquatic feel of his Take It As It Comes EP sounds like a nocturnal journey to the briny depths to preach the word to all manner of sea floor dwellers. Spread over four tracks, Zap washes layers of dreamy pads and chords over waves of rolling bass and textured rhythms. It’s an approach he uses for every track here, which may lead to some seeing the EP as samey and uninteresting, but I feel that what Zap is aiming for here is creating moods and vibes with these tracks, which he does and does incredibly well.

“I Get Deep Beat” makes use of this formula with subtle keys accenting the ebb and flow of the groove, while broken, dirt-worn percussion clatters around behind the scenes. “I’m Fine” is the weakest link on the EP, though it still carves out a solid vibe with blunted wood blocks and marimbas forging their way through the murky blur of foggy pads and grubby bass. “BYE” charts a similar course as the other tracks, keeping the chords reverberating around a small echo chamber, adding barely perceptible details to spike the track with added feeling and warmth, while “Every Day Could Be Like DIZ” adheres to the most straight up house principles of them all with its Juno-like bass, skippy hats and flourishes of staccato snares. The Take It As It Comes EP may not be particularly groundbreaking, but then I hardly think that’s the point; Zap has crafted four tracks of sublime deepness here that will hit the heart of any discerning dance floor.