Breach – Artis – Aus Music

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Title: Artis
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To those who weren’t switched onto the man before last year, Breach is just that guy who came out of nowhere with Jack and dominated the UK club scene for the whole summer. To write him off as the latest one-hit wonder might seem fair enough, if you didn’t know Breach was the deep-house focused moniker of Ben Westbeech, and the fact this guise has a lot more to offer than pop-dance music. His latest release, on the ever-exciting Aus Music, is a three tracker of nice and simple deep-house, tinged with an atmosphere of murky techno. Brilliant in its simplicity, Artis dispels any notions of Breach as a name for which the fifteen minutes are up. Classically training, having served under the tutelage of Claude VonStroke, and with ten years already under his belt as Westbeech, it actually feels as though the producer is only just beginning to show the world what he can really do.

Often described as successfully straddling the underground and commercial, the phenomenal success of Jack, and follow up single Everything You Never Had, could suggest the underground is now far behind the producer. But not so here. Artis sounds like a studio head with fresh new ideas and no pretenses about his status. It’s not a record designed to scare new followers off the bandwagon, nor is it a scramble to be seen as true to any roots. The tracks have a relaxed experimental feel, mirroring the organic progression of a musician constantly looking for new sounds. This One’s For You You Know Who You Were oozes confidence as it slowly rolls through various sonic breakdowns, all strung together with a piano melody and punctuated by bassy rhythms, while Ode Oshi is definitely the highlight, its stilted chord progression almost out of kilter with the overall soundtrack, and worming its way into your head for exactly that reason, proving this latest to be a solid delivery on the hype that surrounds its creator.


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