From Parts Unknown EP

From Parts Unknown EP

Nivek Tsoy [Dessous Recordings]

6 March, 2008 | 11.48AM

• Section: Music Reviews
• Written by: Lee Smith

Anagram lovers among you may notice that Nivek Tsoy is a cunning re-arrangement of Kevin Yost, acclaimed deep house producer of the late 1990s, whose sultry beats for labels like Guidance where roundly acclaimed by everyone from Terry Francis to Giles Peterson.

If they are indeed one and the same – and gossip-mongers on the scene have hinted that they are – his sound has certainly changed a lot since then.

Out go the flutes and bongos, and in come three tracks of brooding, low-strung robotic tech-house, replete with spooky delays, rasping fractured voices, and a murky, menacing undertow.

Pick of the bunch is the sinister rumble of ‘Time & Space’, which takes a Buttrich/Dice style neo-classical riff and overlays it with all manner of infinitely resonating FX, a mid-paced, loose-limbed groove, and an overarching sense of dark drama.

The accompanying tracks are more stripped back, but will certainly appeal to DJs looking for trackier, mix-friendly alternatives.

While plenty of house producers have “gone dark” over the last year or two, few have pulled off as convincing an about-turn as Yost has here – but then again, it might not be him at all…

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