Polymod - Polymod EP

April 20, 2018 - 17 Steps

Summer is growing ever closer and summer hits are starting to appear in the wild. Dance-producer DJ duo Dusky and their relatively young imprint 17 Steps are no strangers to hits from all seasons. The London pair have steadily been filling their label’s catalogue with meaningful bangers produced by a wide variety of musicians including themselves. The most recent offering comes from Polymod, an as-of-writing anonymous entity or group of entities who as far as we can tell only produce electronic music and do entirely nothing else. Some sources claim that Polymod is the new title of a veteran producer looking for a fresh start, but we don’t believe in sources, so we will work with what we’ve got.

The three track self titled EP comes packages in beautifully-minimal 17 Steps style, the logo on an eggshell background. The only thing that differs between releases is the color of the logo and text: this go-round its a very pleasant light mauve, probably somewhere in the #c593d2 range on the hex color code. 

The EP jumps right in with what is probably currently and will be the most popular track in the bunch, ‘No Other.’ First heard in the Dusky London Mixmag Lab takeover back in March, (though it might have been played earlier than that) the track is a purpose-built summer anthem. A lone kick drum opens the six minute long song giving structure to a few field recording styled samples that layer up in the intro. A simple piano chord stab starts creeping up and before you know it, it’s already over. The track has finished and everyone has left the party/club/stage, but everyone is satisfied. It was a good time. Tracks like this are deceptively simple. The piano and bass and the relationship between them is all that really matters, but when it’s done right, it’s infectious. ‘No Other’ hits the mark with ease and a slight sense of nostalgia.

‘TX’ which features a just as enigmatic producer project named Nanook follows the lead of the first track with an ambient field-recording intro that quickly gets slapped down by a stripped acid bass line and thunderous reverbed kick. It’s a high energy track that provides a nice contrast to track one, defiantly the nocturnal energy to the diurnal energy of ‘No Other.’ Through the strong structure of the track small sampled elements peek out here and then providing a nice texture. It’s hard to tell the style of collaboration that went into the production of this track, but the end result is beefy and cohesive.

The final track ‘PG1000’ rounds out the EP, combining styles from the two previous tracks. More use of field recordings, this time a babbling water source featuring birds, and minimal percussive elements flow throughout nicely enough, but I’m not as convinced by the bass that comes into play around the halfway mark. It’s heavy-handed and the note progression feels more like long intro than EP finale. 

All in all it’s a very solid EP out on a very solid label from a very solid producer. It will be interesting to learn more about Polymod as I’m sure we will in the coming months. In the meantime, I’m sure we will hear more and more of this EP being played all summer long. 🍍