It can be tough to keep track of all the releases Noisia’s three labels, VISION, DIVISION and INVISIBLE are putting out especially with all the tracks they play on their podcast, Nosia Radio. Not so in the case of INVISIBLE label favorite, Proxima. The release of his latest EP Off Angle has been highly sought after for a while now, even by Noisia themselves. After stints with NËU and Entropy and a release on Getahead’s charity project Mind State, Proxima’s return to INVISIBLE was hotly anticipated and well worth the wait.
Finally available for purchase today, all of the tracks on Off Angle aren’t quite ready to stream, but Your EDM managed to get our hot little earbuds on the third single from the EP, “Mutate.” Like the other singles that have gone before it, “Mutate” is representative of this EP in that it’s weird, different and quite experimental. It’s endemic of a new style that Proxima seems to have been playing with of late, where he skates just to the edge of dancefloor banger with his beat structure while layering in lots of other strange and artsy textures so that the listener is never quite sure how to categorize the London-based producer’s style.
What makes “Mutate” stand out in a full EP of stand-out tracks is that here Proxima even plays with the beat structure. Hovering somewhere between halftime and drum and bass tempo-wise, it’s difficult to suss out what beat structure we’re even dealing with until about two minutes in to the track. That’s not a criticism, by the way. “Mutate” is original and interesting, with a lot of structure and mixable parts. It’s simply done in a way that’s interesting as a radio play, fun as a dancefloor track and different as a sound design piece. Intelligent and complex seems to be Proxima’s bag lately, and “Mutate” is a great example.
Despite all being a bit off center or “Off Angle” if you will, all the tracks on Proxima’s new EP are solid DnB stunners, ready for the club or for a mega playlist. INVISIBLE, which focuses on the strange, more experimental side of drum and bass is a great home for Proxima’s new venture. It will be interesting to see where he takes this new and different vein of his style on his next ventures.
Off Angle by Proxima is out today on INVISIBLE Recordings and can be streamed or purchased on multiple platforms by clicking here.
