- The names of Beesmunt Soundsystem's EPs—Body Shape, The Baby Maker and Sensual Works, their latest—perfectly describe the Dutch duo's sound. In a 2014 interview, David Van Der Leeuw and Luigi Vittorio Jansen agreed with Tom Trago's assessment of their "warm and sexy" tracks. It goes some way towards explaining their appeal, but it also sells them short. Van Der Leeuw and Jansen are classicists at heart—on tracks like "Sensual Works" and "Blissed Out," second-wave Detroit techno is more present than any erotic impulse.
On "Playin' Myself," though, you can hear what Trago was getting at. A bassy acid squiggle is suspended in the dusty drum track, whose shapeshifting effects bubble and bounce throughout its six minutes. Elsewhere, Sensual Works is a showcase for Beesmunt Soundsystem's sleek sound design. The title cut's buoyant stomp is a faint echo of Levon Vincent but without his usual hiss and muck. (Jason Kendig's remix gives the original a big adrenaline shot, using skull-rattling hand drums and expressive synths.) "Blissed Out"'s star-sailing panpipes are also spotlessly clean, but its glassy sparkle is more like the result of delicate polishing than a splash of bleach. Sensual Works is a record made for moving bodies, of course, but there are also moments that rouse the soul.
TracklistA1 Sensual Works
A2 Blissed Out
A1 Playin' Myself
A2 Sensual Works (Jason Kendig Remix)