Troy Gunner – Fools Gold/Head In Hands/Dancing In The Leaves
Mindset Records
Three amazing tracks from one of our favourite new producers this year find a welcome home on newly revamped Mindset Records. Troy Gunner blew us all away earlier this year when his music made its way onto the PYC radar via Joe Synkro and we couldn’t be happier to see him realise his potential through probably the most ideal outlet possible, Mindset already being renowned for helping to launch the careers of AnD, xxxy, Kowton (as Narcossist), Hatti Vatti and more.
The tracks for Mindset have been on constant rotation in the PYC office (read bedroom) for a while now and with mastering, they sound absolutely perfect. Often more akin to soundscapes than conventional dance music, Troy’s sound contentedly fills its own niche, rewardingly remaining apropos of trends and the ever accelerating wheel of hype which drives an often over- saturated releases schedule.
Fools Gold, Head in Hands and Dancing in the Leaves encapsulate Troy’s sound brilliantly, all displaying a propensity to make full use of the sonic field and a winning command of ambience, with pregnant pauses inevitably followed by euphorically satisfying chords that provide nothing short of full sonic absorption.
Fools Gold comes with trademark home recorded sampling, latched on to a funked out bassline whilst Head in Hands, played recently on Radio 1 by Gilles Peterson, employs woozy synths and perfectly pitched vocals to float on top of oceans of ambience. Dancing in the Leaves feels comparatively tougher than the other two, with a solid kick pattern providing forward momentum and a framework around which layers of ambience, vocals, percussion and tape hiss collide, with superlative results.
This release is 100% not for the passive listener and while all three tracks have been proven to have club pedigree, with Synkro, Indigo, Shadowfax, Stickman and Troy himseld proving their worth on the dancefloor, i’m massively looking forward to getting this on wax, sitting down in front of the turntables and just listening. Truly one of the releases of the year, with incredible artwork from Pierre Serafini as usual, DO NOT sleep on this one.
You can catch Troy playing at the PYC 1st Birthday this Friday at the Soup Kitchen basement, Manchester.
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