Sahar – Madi EP (Paradiso)

There’s nothing more exciting in this business than discovering amazing artists making thumpingly good new music.

The story is that Sahar found an obscure hip-hop record in the bargain bin of his Dad’s music shop, saw the potential and set about sampling. For 5 years both artist and track developed, gradually crafting the sound and spirit of ‘Madi’ into the sonic bomb it is today.

‘Madi’ is a snarling dog of a record. There are no presets or sample packs here, just pure out-of-space, new-dimension-finding, twisted, house music. I don’t know if this is deep-house, acid-house or melodic, it really is a little of each but I can promise you this; once it’s done stroking your forehead and lulling you into a false sense of security it will grab you by the ears and turn you upside down. The groove is just the right side of bouncy, the melodies are ear-wormy but other-worldly, when that industrial siren kicks in, the intensity of the melody ramps and there you have it, like a kraken unleashed from the deep, a monster is born.

‘Quantum’ is a little deeper, but working on the fire & ice theme there are esoteric pads and lush ambients, sitting on top of a grooving, but growling techno bed. When the riff kicks in, the arrangement switches up a gear and before you know it you’re standing in the eye of the storm watching debris fly all around you. There’s melody, there’s throbbing bass and the sonic palette of an industrial unit all cleverly shoe-horned into a no-nonsense dance weapon. 

‘Somewhere, Out There’ rounds up the package with another deep and driving four-to-the-floor stomper. This one is a more of an early morning moment, a head-down worker. The transitions from groove-to-move are fabulous with the darkness of the bass and drums offset by the uplifting pads and cosmic melody. This is the music that spaceships land to, beautiful and wondrous yet dark and threatening.

Label boss REES turns in a romping remix, that take a different spin on the original but isn’t really needed.

If Sahar can keep this up, and judging by this release, there is no reason to think he couldn’t, what we are seeing here is a significant launch of a future artist that we will hear much more from. I’ll be watching, and waiting.

Miss this at your peril.

Score: 9/10

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