by Mike Lavin
Spanish producer and DJ John Talabot’s debut ƒIN is a sort of futuristic venture into the dance floors of deep, deep house. Talabot’s beats are consistently groovy and the instrumentation is freshly addictive; it has an almost experimental factor attributed to them. Stepping into a Barcelona club at night, I’m sure ƒIN is on repeat. Like most house music, there is an incredible amount of rise and release in the music’s structure. Some of the climaxes of Talabot’s work is tremendous and extremely satisfying and the rises are no different offering Mediterranean dancey build-ups to the whole world.
ƒIN intro “Depak Ine” is a bit of a misleading kick start to a mostly cheerful album. Easily one of the more dark and daring dance songs with the sounds of a rain forest in the background, but it cheers up and the party begins with all the nuances coming together to create a very hopeful and eventful intro. Talabot really knows how to incorporate more and more new sounds each time, nothing is really repeated or overused, except maybe the beats, but you can only create so many beats on a dance album, but even the beats have really refreshing moments.
Clear album highlight “Estiu” has this excellent hook of keyboard and other nuances. Talabot clearly has an understanding on how to create these hooks and build-ups of intense stature. The production from Talabot is also a knockout with a lot of fade-in and fade-out techniques used as well as the right amount of pacing aloud in the build-ups. “Last Land” takes you for a spin when it literally fades out entirely and then returns with its climax, Talabot takes you on a completely different journey to each song’s climax; “Journeys” brings you up like a Panda Bear song, “H.O.R.S.E.” has excellent use of synths moving up in intensity until arriving at a very Mediterranean style of chanting female vocals, and “Oro Y Sangre”, easily ƒIN’s most experimental cut, is like a Oneohtrix Point Never track.
Looking for good dance music in 2012 is actually kind of challenging from my perspective. With the somewhat annoying outbreak of dubstep, ƒIN is a great escape from the countless dubstep-centered Youtube videos and remixes. Although you can thank the numerous mainstream music publications bringing Talabot to the speakers of music enthusiasts in America, I think ƒIN would have found itself in popularity even without all the critic’s attention. ƒIN is the soundtrack to a party never stopping in the dance clubs of Spain.
