Halvtrak returns to Cold Blow with techno-romantic escapism, riding Chi House-leaning rhythms and intergalactic Techno sculptures. If his previous “Images By Night” dealt with things nocturnal, Digital Dawn opens the curtains to a blue-eyed retrofuturism, bursting with colour and spark.
The A-side shows Halvtrak at his most upbeat vibe to date. X-Pressed and Rhythm Overture teleport us on a nostalgia trip to the acid, rave and breakbeat era, re-imagined by an artist too young at the time but who parsed the ethos from the artefacts of its heyday.
The B-side throws a deeper counterbalance to the release. Born out of studies in the Chicago house tradition, Phase Distorshun checks into a turning point in time where disco influence was long abandoned and sights set into the unknown deep space.
The closing number, Doubt, does not relent on the 4-to-the-floor but turns the gaze inward, exploring our inner vulnerabilities while musically standing on the shoulders of New York-style house and the early UK-produced Detroit Techno a la B12, Stasis and the like.