Dust and Liquid EP

Wax’o Paradiso returns with their fourth release, a full-fidelity four track EP from Naarm/Melbourne producers Hybrid Man.

‘Dust & Liquid’ sees Hybrid Man lower BPMs into balearic territory, offering a shimmering, pulsing and textured contribution to the label’s efforts to canonise and catalogue the extraordinary psychedelia being produced in so-called Australia.

‘Eternal Nightglow’ sets the record’s tone beautifully with a soaring 90bpm-yet-high-energy pace that subtly evokes the idealism and innocence of early William Orbit, yet firmly roots itself in the contemporary. Organic bass tones juxtapose with but do not contradict swirling cosmic synth work, with a flip-to-dub breakdown that would make fans of Bill Laswell smile.

‘Sunwave’ ups the ante slightly and sets the tempo to chug! Beginning to introduce the neo-prog sound that Naarm has rightly earned a reputation for doing so well. Both a party starter and one for the after hours.

With ‘Bluegums’ the record leaves the downtempo for dust, edging the EP into gentle doof territory. As the name suggests it yearns to be heard loud and clear, amongst the trees in the expansiveness of the Australian countryside. Juxtaposing the natural and the machine, the dust and the liquid.

An aptly well-rounded conclusion to the ‘Dust & Liquid’ Journey, ‘Swept by the Undertow’ bookends the record by returning to slower, moodier space, with a stepping descent into, as the name suggests, murkier aquatic zones.