[Cadenza]

Last year Thomas Melchior revealed a darker side of his musical personality in his powerful second album, No Disco Future. With texture, repetition and context as the dominant themes, slits of light and shades of tone color shone through even brighter when they appeared in the elegiac strains of “Water Soul,” the reduced regal progressions of “Her Majesty,” and “Black Mother”‘s mellifluous low end. On the Cadenza-released “Who Can Find Me EP,” Melchior’s focus returns to more melodic territory, albeit with melancholic overtones similar to those found in No Disco Future‘s most lucid tunes.

On first listen, “Who Can Find Me (I Can’t)” could be the postscript to No Disco‘s bookend, “Water Soul,” not least because it, too, features vocals from Melchior’s talented daughter. Her breathy delivery, both in full phrases and wordless loops, floats above hearty and reverberating chord stabs and a rolling bell progression with sharp, pixelated edges. Given its light percussive touch, slightly sullen mood and succulent choice in tones, “Who Can Find Me” seems a fitting capstone for an otherwise frenzied night of dancing. Its flipside, “Choir,” is more suited for the rest of the set, launched forward on full-bodied hand percussion and crisp hi-hats. Vocals again reside at the center — male shards marking time and swirling female vocals disrupting it — but its smoky, out of sync chords and trickling marimba line are what set it apart as a Melchior production. Perhaps not as potent as its looming LP predecessor, the “Who Can Find Me EP” is just as painstaking constructed with a flavor that’s just a touch sweeter.