Weval – Easier EP

Hearing WEVAL's music for the very first time, you might wonder from what geniuses' vault of vintage milestones these sounds have been pulled: the Dutch duo's incredibly catchy arrangements seem perfused by a rarefied pop magic that only a chosen few have truly mastered. Surely, this must be the work of a well - established veteran - or two youngsters so massively talented that it borders on the obscene. Weval's EASIER EP is here to demonstrate that it wasn't an accident, either - with four epic cuts that will haunt you long after you've left the floor.

The 2013 debut „Half Age EP“ from Dutch newcomers Harm Coolen and Merijn Scholte Albers aka WEVAL struck a perfect balance between ingenuous simplicity and warm melodies: a rare moment of rapture and certainly one of those records that you wish you would've released yourself – which is probably why we smuggled an exclusive Weval track onto the tracklist of our much-acclaimed „Total 14“ compilation (KOMPAKT 310 CD 118). There, the duo's dreamy, yet dynamic variant of slow-burning, sweeping house held up more than well with the other high caliber names present on the record - leading us directly to the phenomenal outing at hand.

With its glistening melodies and rousing beats, WEVAL's EASIER EP displays a staggering sense for danceable drama - spread over four expertly crafted tracks that will speak to your hearts and feet through radiant synths, ardent vocal snippets and sublime melodies. From pawing opener GIMME SOME to synth power ballad ONE, the introspective THINKING OF and title anthem EASIER, this is a rather beautifully flowing listening experience, not at all betraying the slightly yeasty circumstances of its creation: „we made this EP in two totally different moods“, the producers explain, „we were both totally in love with two different girls, but for both of us it didn't work out – and to be clear, this was not our choice.“

However, the defeat led to a phase of high productivity and research: „we felt terrible but we had a new EP we could work on and spend days and days finding a new sound.“ A couple of months and gear updates later, „the winter was gone and surprisingly it all worked out with those girls.“ Suddenly flush with happy feelings, Harm and Merijn finally hit the stride and quickly wrapped up production – resulting in an impactful wealth of emotions permeating all four tracks: “you can almost hear these two different moods we were in – it gets from cool, euphoric to dramatic and intense at the end.“