Wav Fuzz’s Cold Fresh Air

The debut release from French crew’s Les Yeux Orange new label is a six track EP of dreamy techno that’s somewhere between Drexciya and a pleasant amphetamine buzz. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a thing about Wav Fuzz but he’s made an adventurous but smooth launch for LYO that isn’t hard to adore. The title track from Cold Fresh Air just splits me wide open – the harmony between ascending chords and the reverby vocal clip can’t be done justice in a flowery prose or producer jargon about keys and pads. Just close your eyes and let it wrap itself around you.

“Bahia Morphine” is still another track that uses a 303 squelch for something other than shaking the rafters. Wav Fuzz has either studied this shit professionally or locked himself into a room with antique machines and emerged as some kind of demonic savant because these records show an elevated understanding of and ease with masterfully hypnotic rhythms and complex arrangements. Instinct is one thing, but in other hands many of these tracks would be a shambles of kicks and chords (and there are way too many records exactly like that). “The Euphoric Six” (no idea what that means) is a strong enough track to anchor a record all by itself. And so on. This is an encouraging label debut for Les Yeux Orange and a resolute breakthrough record for Wav Fuzz.