Katie Boyle’s voice cracks very slightly on the second chorus of Show Me Heaven, and that tiny imperfection is the best thing on the record. Koven have spent years perfecting festival-grade melodic drum and bass, the kind built for a field full of hands at dusk, and the risk with that polish is that it sands the humanity off. Here they leave the humanity in. The drop is enormous, a wall of supersaws and rolling breaks engineered to be heard from three fields over, but it is that small vocal fray that keeps pulling me back in. Max Rowat’s production has always understood that a big drop means nothing if the quiet part before it does not earn it, so the breakdown strips everything down to voice and a single held synth and lets you sit in the tension. It is unashamedly emotional dance music for people who think they are too cool for emotional dance music. Turn it up and let it embarrass you a little.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.