DJ Serafin – Soda Water

DJ Serafin – Soda Water – EP Review

House-music…you can try to lie to me all you want to, but I know for a fact the last time I checked in on you that you weren’t THIS good!  DJ Serafin has got me up late listening…quite happily I might add – everything I’ve heard on the Soda Water EP is pretty damn justifiably phenomenal; I don’t just think I’ve stumbled upon a good artist here – there’s no doubt in my mind that my ears have just happened upon a serious contender and future superstar in the electro-circuit.  This EP is absolutely stunning from wall-to-wall and if you could see me right now from wherever in the world that you are, you’d do nothing but laugh…DJ Serafin has done everything from have me riotously bouncing in my chair to doing the full-on ROBOT in celebration of these sounds I’m hearing.  Soda Water is EPIC – this entire genre should be proud to have him be a part of it…and even though I’ve only been listening to Serafin a short time myself, I can absolutely say with confidence that this dude is easily going to find himself at the top of the charts for the incredible work he’s put into this new record.

What an adventure in sound!  Seriously!  Not only can this dude build a song with flawless intensity & melody – he has an absolute master’s grip on this entire playlist and a full-on degree in mixology as far as I can tell.  DJ Serafin starts out this cutting-edge set of four-tracks slyly with the title-track, “Soda Water” leading it off…and it moves subtly at first, building at a perfect pace.  Smartly not revealing all his cards in this first cut – “Soda Water” is a perfect intro…lots of excellent movement to the sounds and structure, but also still lots of room for this DJ to go on and continually impress you as the EP progresses.  Great beat, great build and DJ Serafin will certainly get the body moving, as I’ve already mentioned and certainly demonstrated right here from my chair as I try to write and bust-moves at the same time.  I particularly like that each of these tracks possess a ton of versatility to them…and where Serafin starts is definitely not where he’ll leave you off.  A lot of House-music thrives and survives on repetition – but this highly-skilled talent seems to really break from that in “Soda Water” and throughout the EP with a ton of transitions that keep the cuts flowing with unique and captivating edits, rhythms and intensity.

Put it to you this way – that title-track might just be as low-key as he’s going to get, and that track is still movin’ and groovin’ like nobody’s business; but as far as I’m hearing – it’s going to find incredible ways to outdo each track.  Serafin absolutely shines on “Spring Bass” – a track so stuffed full of originality that I’d have no problem saying this might just be my favorite of the four.  The amount of skill and care…the amount of perfection in the production in the mix…I mean…this track just comes together and shows Serafin at his absolute finest right from its very start.  “Spring Bass” makes use of solid glitch-techniques and vocal-samples in such brilliantly clever ways that it can’t do anything else BUT impress your whole freakin’ face.  A track like this seriously makes me smile…brings me right back to my acid-days where sounds like this would vibrantly pop right out from the speakers and into my very soul; this is the kind of music you can truly feel living right inside your very core.  It’s as smooth as smooth can be…when Serafin WANTS it to be…and when he wants to really mix it up, he puts on a clinic of how-to’s in the world of doing it RIGHT.  I could eat this track for breakfast, lunch and dinner & still want to snack on it in between mealtimes.  The amount of skill that’s displayed in this second track alone confirms that Serafin has every right to pursue a seat at the head of the electro table – he’s commanding the decks with confidence, precision and a serious grip on the dynamics of stuttered-shots, editing and sound.  The low-end has enormous depth and life to it…”Spring Bass” is a track I doubt I’ll ever stop loving.

“Move” is certainly an apt title for this third-cut on the Soda Water EP.  Don’t let this guy fool you for even a moment; “Move” might sound at first like he’s going to head into more typical terrain for electro with its consistent beat…but you just wait.  Like I’ve mentioned…Serafin doesn’t ever reveal his entire set of tricks all in that first minute like so many others out there do, then ‘set it and forget it’ as the repetition of a good beat keeps them safe.  Serafin boldly takes about a million chances per-song, and “Move” is certainly no exception.  What this track has done better than perhaps any of the others so far – is that its most major switch catches one seriously incredible vibe…very different from the rest of what we’ve heard so far, and again possessing incredible depth in the hooks that you can’t help but get snared and lost in it.  “Move” will make you “Move” whether you want to or not…but trust me when I say it’ll be much easier to let yourself go than try to resist it.

Which reminds me…I really need to put new shocks into this chair…I’m going to ruin any bounce it has left to it and flatten the rest of the plush in the cushion if I continue to listen to the Soda Water EP…

Saving what arguably contains some of his most exotic sounds and vibrant samples spliced together at the end of the record on “King Cobra” – DJ Serafin has pretty much nothing left to prove at this point, yet still manages to find more ways to impress and leave you with a memorable impact you won’t forget on this final tune.  Using rubbery low-end grooves and wickedly smart, atmospheric samples and drum-sounds…he’s right on the edge of drum’n’bass on this one at times, but again puts in so many incredible switches throughout his music that it’s really a crime to call this electro-artist any one thing.  He’s a master of the multi-universe…an explorer of the uncharted and unique…a man that is clearly not satisfied with any line that would have him walking directly from A-to-B – this guy uses the entire alphabet of sounds without ever needing to express himself with a single word.  The serious bounce and edge that “King Cobra” sounds as menacing as it does electrically-joyful at times – Serafin has displayed such an impressive range of emotions, textures and tones in his electro that I know you’re gonna love this EP every inch as much as I did.  We’re all gonna remember DJ Serafin’s name and music after listening to the Soda Water EP…and if by any chance we do somehow forget it…shouldn’t be all that hard to find it again, right at the top of the electro-charts.

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