Entro Senestre, aka American Jon Beall, has landed himself among house virtuosos indeed with the Flashbacks EP, his sophomore 12″. Echovolt, the Athens-based label releasing it, has put out just six records in four years. But they’ve come from some sterling names: Legowelt; L.I.E.S. owner, Ron Morelli; and Simoncino, a new-ish Italian producer who seems destined for mass acclaim. With their dusty house vibes, Beall’s productions fit right in with this trio’s. They’re also rather short, clocking in at around five minutes long. In this sense, Beall’s pieces have a touch of Legowelt to them, his ideas deployed and resolved with rapidity. “Flashback” itself, for instance, is built around two dominant motifs. The first, a springy bass groove, appears after just four bars worth of intro. The second, a jaunty flurry of bloops, hits about 30 seconds later. The two have just enough time to flirt before the track ends.
In “Sun High,” an even fatter low end leads the charge, scores of peppy synth notes swarming it, like bees on a hive. “Uncertain Tragedy” opts for a similar — but far less chaotic — aesthetic, successfully pulling off optimism without slipping right into the cloying honey pot. But the record’s black sheep, and therefore its most striking cut, is the nasty “One Time For Your Mind.” Its choked-up acid bass line acts the perfect vehicle for the FM bells that meander sparsely on the track’s surface before unexpectedly blossoming in the final quarter. It’s tricks like this that make the four pieces on Flashbacks seem much more story like than they actually are. Beall’s approach is direct, if nothing else. He identifies what he wants from each track, and then forcefully extracts it. It’s a level of confidence uncommonly found in sophomore records, but then, that’s why he’s appearing courtesy of Echovolt, rather than some hack netlabel.
