- Fans lamenting the relatively light Daniel Stefanik release schedule for 2008 have two early Christmas presents under the tree; his painfully good recent long player Reactivity is a subterranean excavation into dubby, techno house while The Madcap Laughs EP is a varied stocking stuffer of equal parts warehouse techno, warped house and hallucinogenic electronics.
"Effervescing Elephant" packs the weight of 100 ponderous pachyderms into a bass line that squelches and farts like bare feet finding air bubbles in a muddy swamp. A repetitive sonar blip chiming in atop mechanical snares sends the vibe over into warehouse-land where that elephantine bottom end spreads its cheeks wide, engulfing the space. Middling sound systems beware the "Effervescing Elephant."
"It Is Obvious" takes a stab at raw, percussion-tough house and scores a hit close to the heart. Reminiscent of DJ Hell's "My Definition of House Music," it pulls together big chunky slabs of house meat and tops it all off with some melodic gravy. "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" charts a different course to the first two tracks as Stefanik dons his best pair of shamanic hypno glasses and sets out to work up a spell with a blinding ten-minute deep techno epic. When the austere tribal button gets pushed near the five minute mark and the clipped vocal yelp cries out, the trance-induced effect is complete.
Tracklist A1 Effercescing Elephant
A2 It Is Obvious
B Hey, Hey, What Can I Do