[Pampa Records]

With several releases over the past few years on Swedish label Ourvision, Axel Boman has steadily been honing his craft to the point where 2010 has seen him picked to attend the RMBA in London and score a release on DJ Koze’s Pampa imprint. Koze, an early champion of Boman must have been keeping a sharp eye on the Swede and has rewarded him with a startling three tracker for his own lauded label. J. Jonason’s vocal refrain on “Holy Love” supposes a love that goes beyond mere emotion and calls to mind classic vocal house in the vein of Blaze or Ten City with more of a disco edge to it. It is through and through a feel good track, one of those rare, can’t-help-but-smile tracks that can be played at any time to the same effect.

The DJ favorite “Purple Drank” is already doing the club rounds, its reeling, sleazy organs hanging like a red-lit fog over the pitched-down vocal sample. The bass is as low slung and insidious as the repeated “I woke up with your name on my lips” vocal which plays throughout the track. Arresting claps jumping on top of one another provide a sharp shock to those who have succumbed to “Purple Drank”‘s aural narcosis, snapping them back to attention. Any fans of Move D, Lowtec or the Workshop releases will almost certainly fall in love with this track. The sparkling, uncomplicated piano of “Not So Much” plink-plonks over shimmering, gaseous pads and warm, enveloping chords. Like “Holy Love,” it offers sonic sunshine, the type of track that can’t help but lift your mood and spirit you away with it. Boman pulls the listener in with several repeatable segments to the track, giving it more of a verse/chorus structure, making “Not So Much” highly memorable and catchy. Whether you’re lured by the warm, sunny aesthetics of “Holy Love” and “Not So Much” or prefer the deep, druggy strains of “Purple Drank,” Boman gives plenty of reasons to keep his name on your lips for the future.