An 'Overture' that closes the record is quite a statement: the collaboration between Mind Against and Jos & Eli sits at the very end of this tracklist, as if the real overture were whatever comes next. And there is something to that: this is the fourth edition of Metaflora, the compilation series through which HABITAT —Mind Against's own label— maps its ecosystem, with the second half already announced for September. The job here is reading the cast list.
The two most seasoned names pull in opposite directions. Woo York, the Kyiv duo forged on Dystopian, Afterlife and Life And Death —the kind who play live armed only with synthesizers and drum machines—, sign 'Lose Control': 125 BPM in D major and that motorised melancholy they have cultivated since their years around Tale Of Us. Swiss stalwart Andrea Oliva, an ANTS resident at Ushuaïa for over a decade, surprises by going the other way: 'Neon Hearts' drops to 122 BPM, shares the slowest pulse of the set with 'Redux Control' and stretches six minutes of F minor that feel closer to sunrise than to a daytime party.
The rest of the cast works as a talent pool, and that is the other half of the appeal:
- Momery and Luminog open with 'Today', which alongside NEMSIA and SAIINT's 'Power' sets the record's speed ceiling: 128 BPM on both faces of B-flat, major and minor.
- Un:said wraps 'Isn't Over Yet' in barely four and a half minutes, the shortest and most direct stroke of the whole selection.
- Upercent holds 'Tetric' for nearly six minutes in B major at 125 BPM, the most assured contribution of the middle stretch.
Between both poles the through-line is remarkably coherent: almost everything lives between 122 and 128 BPM, with the contained runtimes of producers thinking about the mix rather than the spotlight. If this is only the overture, the bar for September is set high.
Sources: Electronic Groove · RA · DJ Mag
