Bleep

After kicking off with the digital-only ‘Melted (Out Of Body Experience)’, Lone drops the first physical EP on his Ancient Astronauts imprint. Abraxas finds Lone mining the same seam of revivalist rave sounds that he has been doing with such success these past few years. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Abraxas hares out of the blocks with its title track. The tune is built on a skittering drum beat pitched somewhere between Afro-house and the ‘Amen’ break - it’s not dissimilar to the exuberant groove that turned up on Cervo’s Black Acre cut ‘Deyo’ back in 2017. However, where many producers would push down on the accelerator from here on in, Lone’s trick is to stretch things out. His deployment of gorgeous halcyon rave synths makes for an unusual and arresting club sound.

‘Young Star Cluster’ is next up, leaning a touch more heavily on the breakbeats than ‘Abraxas’ did. While those same washed-out synths make their presence felt here, the real trick of this track is the way Lone plays the dinky tones of a thumb piano off against a zapping 303 bassline. ‘How Can You Tell’ is the most retro cut on the EP - while sporting some similar drum programming to ‘Young Star Cluster’, ‘How Can You Tell’ indulges in the same Detroit-style stargazing we find in the work of artists like Derek Carr and Space Dimension Controller.

Lone continues to fashion something new from old-school rave styles on the Abraxas EP.