Transfer by Amor Satyr

There are no more boundaries in dance music. Transfer, the latest EP from Amor Satyr, not only pulls heavily from trance, but does so while also repurposing vocal clips lifted from Brazilian baile funk. On paper, it seems like an almost unholy musical union, but in the skilled hands of this Parisian, the combination is straight-up deadly. This is body music, and while the record’s breakneck tempos and blazing synths are fully rooted in freewheeling rave traditions, its thundering low-end is muscular enough to push even the biggest favela soundsystems into the red.

The EP’s speedy title track rolls out crunchy melodies atop a broken rhythm and thick sheets of bass, but it’s “Quer Dançar?” that perhaps best embodies the music’s dual spirit, its swirly psychedelics unfolding atop booming, electro-indebted breakbeats and a potent array of face-smacking percussion. That array also includes a variety of finely sliced Brazilian vocal chops, which Amor Satyr expertly employs to punctuate the song’s already dizzying drum attack. It’s a technique he returns to on “Rebola,” injecting a bit more life into the track’s rumbling gallop, before wrapping up the EP on a brighter, bouncier note with the effervescent “Bebe.”

Tracklist