Originally a digital-only release, this album carries the Toronto electronic music artist's body of work into a temporal loop of sorts, uniting a bond with Wave Science, his June 2021 EP on Pacific Rhythm. City of Rooms was completed in February 2021 and written as an escape during pressurized times. It invites an abstract style of listening in which any given sound links to various moments throughout the album.

The EP flows like scenery on a long train ride. Track lights pass with a rhythmic certainty as foreground and background twist around each other. Listeners will be transported through a geography of sounds that function as independent parts of a whole. Triangulations occur as elements fall into different forms of relief against each other.

A sense of technologically alienated mystery envelops the wings of this album in the distant clicks and hums that churn beneath jeweled synth extremities. Rings of Roland toms and hi-hats pierce clouds of ambient pads, the signature chaotic truth of acidic 303 patterns cross time kept by a twitching rhythm section rendered in field samples from the local grocery store. Arpeggiated slopes built off of echo and fuzz ascend, a remote whistle answers the syncopated call of a güiro before transforming into a cricket in flight and revealing that there is a latin backbone to much of the percussion on City of Rooms.

In a few instances Emissive hides gemlike hooks beneath minutes of intricate construction.The album opens with Quartz Register, a steady and intricate gallop of servos and circuit noise at times verging on conga.On Natural Springs, an acid riff announces an amazingly perplexing synth güiro solo. Sunset Yellow sees tubular horn-like barks emerge in a flurry before pulling off to form a sparse alternating backbeat that haunts the rest of the track. The final track, Constellation of Friends, is an arrangement of familiar 808 samples treated to an exquisitely measured mix that turns an 808 cowbell sample into an otherworldly clock.

City Of Rooms Tracklisting:
1. Quartz Register - 7:34
2. Natural Springs - 7:05
3. Sunset Yellow - 6:55
4. Chlorophyll - 6:17
5. Constellation Of Friends - 5:34 More

Repress!
Fresh and direct from Toronto, Pacific Rhythm is pleased to welcome Emissive (aka Evan Vincent) for a solo cruise on the label. While Vincent has appeared on the label twice as part of house music duo Active Surplus (alongside Ian Syrett), this new EP entitled Wave Science sees the young musician push his sound into warmer and more melodic waters. Vincent says the new tracks pay tribute to the Black American roots of electronic music; a historical fact the producer says is an ongoing source of motivation and inspiration in his work.

Indeed, this new four-tracker sees Emissive bring in a pinch of futuristic boogie and cosmic funk to his dancefloor recipe—versatile flavours that should go down quite well at a variety of Dance Opportunities in the very near future! All of the tunes were composed and mixed at Vincent’s home studio in Canada’s largest city, with the tracks getting a warm, Hi-Fi mixdown via Syrett’s Nagra IV reel-to-reel. Tech talk aside, Vincent says he wanted to avoid over-analyzing the production and instead summon the spirits of dance, love and seasonal warmth. Or as the artist himself says: “Less thinking, more feeling.” Check it out and we’re sure you’ll agree his approach paid off! More

"Label head P.Bud returns to Aronia Records with a four track EP of club ready tracks. Recorded between New York and Toronto over the past two years, the EP takes inspiration from the sounds of both cities, flowing between house, techno, and breaks. The A1, Dopen, opens with a dubby pad and unfolds into a grooving deep house cut. Non-Terra ups the tempo with skittering percussion, silky pads, crystalline stabs, and a deep bassline. On the flip, Ontech (Perc Mix) builds on the energy with a catchy lead, accompanied by a driving bassline, swinging percs, and warm pads. Enttt closes the record and cools us off with lush chords contrasted by breaks and sub bass. Four tracks for four moods, enjoy!" More