Spanish compadres Karlos Phazer and Mikel Navarro,
better recognized under their production names Soulrack
and Mikel_E, are behind the label Cray1 LabWorks,
which has been the home for the majority of their work.
But late last year, they teamed up under the name SM
(guess what it stands for!) to release on an AMAM
compilation, and now AMAM boss Alessio Mereu has
invited them back for a full EP of sexy martian goodness
titled Green Eyed Girl.
The title track showcases the duos affinity for interstellar
house beats: after the tribal beat builds up, we leave the
stratosphere and encounter some alien voices chanting
atop a squealing, Detroit-inspired synth line as we land
on a planet inhabited by raving crickets. Then, fellow
Spaniard Hector Couto founder of Pura Music offers
his own take on the track, adding his own gallop and
bringing things back down to earth, breaking a sweat and
getting his hands dirty.
For the EPs second half, S and M offer two more
originals, Lets Work which finds inspiration in classic
Chicago sounds (think Relief Records and Dance
Mania) but with a smooth contemporary edge. Finally,
Celebrate brings the BPM up a few notches and leans
toward the techno end of the spectrum, with rhymthic
elements and a rubbery bassline playing a flirty game of
hide and seek, accompanied by a buzzing robotic voice,
like an overcaffeinated version of the alien we heard in
Green Eyed Girl, rounding out the EP on a logical yet
slightly buggy note.