classixx hanging gardens

By: Adrian Coto

I wasn’t always into electronic music, at least not until I started listening to Prodigy in my early teen years. The loud, hard, and fast Big Beat style that hatched my fascination with the electronic genre at large carried me through various Drum N Bass, Electro, House, and even the more dubby Dubstep artists (imagine I just scoffed at you for considering most producers after Skream, Benga, Caspa, and Rusko to be good dubstep). Everything I liked was fast. Everything I liked was harsh and heavy. Everything I liked forced me to dance.

With Classixx’s latest album, Hanging Gardens, LA natives Tyler Blake and Michael David offer up a sound that is mellow, thoughtful, and most importantly danceable. While the duo kept it lively during the heyday of the house craze, they seemed to focus more on an indie vibe as opposed to the raw electronic mush that inundated much of the EDM scene as it blew up. Such a vibe shines through in tracks like “A Stranger Love,” with its sweeping, lofty vocals and upbeat tempo. Other tracks like “A Fax From the Beach,” and “Rhythm Santa Clara,” bring a strangely seductive disco sound that simultaneously excites and relaxes.

The rest of the album is in keeping with such an ethos, to excite and relax. My ears had been so used to the heavy EDM aim to excite and melt faces. Does Hanging Gardens take control causing me to thrash about with wanton abandon? No. Is it the same style I found myself drawn to as I discovered electronic music? Not at all. But what it does do is show a mature and intriguing approach to the indie electro/disco scene that is quickly emerging. It shows a wider trend that, maybe, the kids who lived through the mainstream EDM boom are now growing slightly into their ears. At least this one feels so.

Classixx “Hanging Gardens” Review

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