[Don’t Be Afraid]

Heard from the distance imposed by habit or fatigue, Mr. Beatnick’s music just sounds like deep house. Get closer and it’s plain other forces are at work, and I’m not merely indicating traces of non-house influences. There’s a rarer, minor-key quality to the Savannah EP that accounts for its disproportionate replay value, and is the kind of thing more likely to flourish in low-pressure environments. It is the uncomplicated and perhaps unproducerly attitude that a 4/4 foundation provides lots of nice cubbies that other production styles can help fill. Savannah completes Mr. Beatnick’s Synthetes EP trilogy maintaining the mellow, memorable note the London musician hit by embedding hip-hop fragments, mosaic-like, between well-spaced kick drums.

Savannah possesses a tangible calm. The hip-hop influences create a dusty afterglow without the hints of futuristic sampledelia lurking in the work of Beatnick’s Detroit influences. The pilgrim’s progress of “Symbiosis”‘s bass line is a summary tour through Mr. Beatnick’s style. Emerging initially with a smooth emptiness that suggests the flappy undulations of a sky dancer, or that the Londoner shares DJ Sprinkles’ taste in pawn-shop synths, it bows out after a bit to make room for the gauzy hustle of buttered strings and sloppy claps. It reduxes amid humid jazz-fusion chords before Beatnick translates it up the scale, transforming it into a briskly tongued sax riff. Savannah is a plain teeming with this kind of excursion, gradual but significant shifts that support a consistent vibe. This gives the producer plenty of lead to toy around with hardcore techno motifs on “Parallax Scroll” without losing the plot. Although none of the hooks are as memorable as Sun Goddess‘s “Shifting Sands,” Mr. Beatnick isn’t the type to force things. His tracks give the appearance of finding themselves as they go along, regardless of how carefully he manages the details.