Sei A

Sei A's move from Montreal's brash Turbo Recordings to Will Saul's house-ier Aus imprint is represented perfectly in the UK artist's new Make It Work EP. The usual distorted swaggering kicks and mountainous dynamics are gone; what we have instead is an EP composed mostly of straightforward deep house tracks. Headline cut "Make it Work" references the frantic momentum of Sei A's previous releases, but in a notably more formulaic structure, while "I'll Take You There" isn't much more than an amalgam of over-produced kicks, plodding bass lines and well-placed breakdowns. The result is a satisfying but ultimately bland brand of house. Though the Breach remix of the EP's title-track on the B-side does little to alter this formula, the digital-only bonus "Hing" is a pleasant surprise; its harsh and sporadic synth sounds provide a much-needed foil to the polished aesthetics of the rest of the EP. As a whole the EP is an enjoyable listen, but Make It Work is lacking something. Here Sei A conforms to the characteristics of a genre faithfully, but despite being pleasant and well thought out, the product is forgettable and bland.