Review Summary: A well-aimed stab in the dark, Alvin master's new found territory with his own touch
Alvin risk has already caught many peoples eyes through his bass riddled remixes ‘Dimisnishing Returns’, ‘Earthquakey people’ ,his moombahton remix of Oh my!’s Dirty Dancer, his laser bass rework of kill the noise turning Fun’s ‘We are young’ into a bearable house track and taking the smooth progressive house song ‘eyes’ and turning it into a ecstasy filled dubstep song. So it’s easy to see why many fans would mistake his latest EP as another batch of heavy bass drops as his whole career so far has not strayed far from it. Infinity EP brings to light his various other influences in which he playful experiments with electro house, moombahton and witch house. This EP is not the same cheesy attempt at ‘dark’ dance music this is the real deal done to death( in a good way) by detail.
In the first track Psychotic he immediately kick starts with some hard drums and is quick to build up to the razor sharp synth lead song with some omniscient vocals and a lone scream makes it a sure fire club hit, leading straight after is the rapping vocals of Sirah on ‘Survival’ who appears to have learnt Darwinism, regardless this moombahton track immediately stands out from its peers once again quick to build up to the main groove without losing any motion spurring on future lower back problems and with the aid of Sirah builds up all flamboyance it needs to stick out.
The title track ‘Infinity’ is a tad bit misleading lulling listeners into a false sense of security before launching straight down into a straight 4x4 electro house song and once again reintroducing the omniscient vocals although this is the most accessible track in the E.P not being harsh.
The final track is Alvin’s take on witch house which is unique to say the least bringing in Jason of letlive. In to rage over his hard hitting drums Alvin this time compared to his earlier tracks takes his time to build up to the climax once again employing the looping of siren- like vocals in a timely manner alongside rising synths and halting the drums just too slowly tighten his hit-hats before unleashing Jason screaming vocals and his bass drum and following it up Alvin weaves his synths in out of the track in the style of witch and only giving a brief moment of clam before ploughing down again.
Infinity is purely made for the club and nowhere else and is sure to shock clubbers into a frenzy whilst exploring the exploring the possibilities of electro house the only problem might be that is just too alien for the fans of owsla which breakbeat drums and screaming vocals it’s not the easy hear- easy dance material the owsla fans have been fed and for the very aspects of this EP that made it what it is ,has also stopped Alvin from being as large if not larger than his peers . As well as being Alvin’s first release of original material this should also be taken as a cue by moombahton producers who still have a chance to avoid the fate of dubstep ,to quickly change up their game instead of swimming in their own spunk, recycling the common norms of reggaeton and dutch house and begin to take influence from as many genres as possible. There are a few artists in dubstep who have attempted to expand the genre to but to no avail, as a result dubstep as a whole has deteriorated into a shambles now clutching onto the classified post-dubstep artists for help though this is not new news. However any moombahton producer would be far wiser to bring something fresh to the genre and fail than recreating a club cliché and perhaps try to create a set of blueprints which allow for room for expansion without losing its sound as a genre perhaps turn it into a more productive dance genre than dubstep has been.
