Earwax – New Setting EP

There’s something slightly inevitable about Earwax turning up on Kazerne again. His last EP didn’t so much end as leave the door ajar, and this new one walks straight back through it with no fuss. The Rotterdam label specialises in this sort of functional pressure, and Earwax seems entirely at home there. ‘Eyes Even Lie’ opens with a thump, kick and low-end locked in with very little decoration, but it doesn't need much else. ‘Rude Scream’, despite the title, does the opposite, easing off into something more measured, built around clipped percussion and space. ‘See You Later’ keeps that logic going, drums doing most of the talking, with small melodic flickers appearing almost by accident. Then ‘Sad Breath’ shifts gear again, leaning into a harder unce-unce pulse, those faint, ghostly synth lines sitting just behind the groove. Four tracks, but the point lands immediately on the first.