DJ Plead – Relentless Thrills
As subtle as you wouldn’t expect club music to be, with DJ Pleads latest EP Relentless Thrills he succeeded to create something extremely deliberate yet captivating. A dense set of different arrangements makes up a total of 6 tracks, however, only a single instrument was needed - the Yamaha ‘Oriental’ keyboard.
Instead of creating big built-ups which might ‘normally’ dissolve by a heavy drop or kickdrum, DJ Plead persistently increases musical tension within the course of his tracks. He implements interesting dynamics between the components. His signature: striking sounds of his Levantine Arab musical origins that resonate to patterns of synthesizers – a unique way to create those Relentless Thrills.
With the first track, RT1, various keys are heard, a bass plays some easy going riff and you hear the recording of the start of an interview in Arabic – altogether these components sound like a rehearsal as if the musicians prepare themselves for the start of a performance – a “thrilling” but also unusual way to open up a record.
If you are not already fazed by the intro, RT2 immediately draws you in by a bombastic dancehall bounce. A reverberating male voice is chanting in Arabic, which leads into singing. His voice meanders around the bounces and drum pattern. Alternatingly, a clarinet sets in, counter calling the voice. As well as the man’s voice the clarinet is of Levantine origin: a traditional flute called mijwiz, which is very popular in Levantine music. It produces a shrill and flattery tone. Even though the musical components come from different origins DJ Plead adjusted each one for them to turn out with a matching flair in which their differences stand in harmony to each other. And yet, a track which leaves you with a thrill as if you’ve just experienced an important chant leaving you with euphoria.
The relentlessness goes on: RT3 expands into a more fluid and sensitive interplay between a flute and percussions, rounded up with abrupt cords of the keyboard. The tempo of the following two tracks, RT4 and RT5, decelerates into a highly sensual atmosphere, in which the clarinet devotionally floats around the some steady percussions – another relentless thrill.
To complete the levels of possible thrills, Plead surpasses himself with his last track RT6: You hear a breeze of what might be the sounds of the mijwiz defending its position towards the sounds of a flattery and wavelike snyth pattern, that becomes more and more dominant in comparison to the clarinet. Listening to RT6 I instantly pick up the feeling of getting some strong chills down my back, which is slowly but steady spreading everywhere on my body- a feeling which no longer can be stopped and demands my full attention - relentlessly.
