Review Summary: A perfect and short taste of how state-of-the-art electronica should sound in the year 2018..... T_T
Cuyo is an electronic artist which is part of the collective/ label Nostro Hood System. Their bandcamp is full of electronic/ psychedelic odysseys, but one little EP from first of this month stands out among the rest. 'π Drops' is an auditory journey of some of the most up to date production techniques and detailed oriented sounding electronic of the year. The one word I am left with after hearing this very small but powerful monolith is: Atmospheric.
The EP is only 4 tracks, but they are all extraordinary examples of electronic music by any standards. While using tribal rhythmic patterns and taking influence from almost every electronic genre in the book (especially IDM, downtempo and breakbeat), Cuyo craft a piece of music that flows effortlessly. If you have any interest in how textures interact with melody, this EP is for you. The whole thing is filled with confounding yet uplifting moments of electronica-based bliss that seems to emanate from a bio-mechanical aquatic super-computer. The sound is far more refined and mature than any of the label's other works, and this really keeps it a head above the rest.
Although based in a kind of futurist return to rave/ club aesthetics, there is something wholly organic and deep-seated about the mysterious sounds surrounding 'π Drops'. According to the bandcamp page, it elaborates that 'π Drops' "is purposeful, where the symbol Pi is represented as an infinite potential for the people of the world to shape the Earth into a colourful paradise without war, poverty and prejudice." With such a bold mission statement, you'd hope they'd have the music to back it up. Thankfully this is very much the case.
Whether the result of an actual person going under the alias 'Cuyo', or a highly advanced quantum program designed to create the most pleasant synthetic music possible, 'π Drops' stands on its own two feet as an alluring piece of mechanized art. At such a short runtime (only about 12 minutes), this can be seen as a disappointment for some. However, the tracks on here are so engaging and intricate in every way, that the length of the EP does not really matter. After one listen you just want to jam it all over again. Its a feat for electronic music in 2018, crossing many terrains that were previously unexplored, and it makes Cuyo a name people should definitely look out for in the future....... :(
