No Mana, Wintersix & Sines From Saturn - Fire

The synth lead on “Fire” sounds like a modem having a religious experience, which is exactly why it works. No Mana has always made electro-house a little too clever for whatever room it’s in, and with Wintersix and Sines From Saturn aboard that brainy streak gets bolted to an actual body-mover. The drop is all serrated, detuned stabs stacked at angles that shouldn’t lock together and somehow do, mechanical and funky in the same breath. It’s the kind of design-forward dance music that rewards good headphones — there’s stuff panning around the edges you’ll miss entirely on a phone. The middle section pulls back into a woozy, near-weightless stretch before the second drop reloads, and that swing between calm and carnage is what keeps four minutes of this from turning into a headache. Four minutes of a producer showing you the homework and making it bang anyway. My one gripe is it ends right as it feels like there’s a third gear left in it.

Buy / stream this track →