Review: Milan based Italian producer Aron Araghi, aka Aquadrop, really captured our imagination with his stunning Aurora Borealis LP last year. Now his most recent single "Drops" has been picked up by Mistajam on his Radio 1Xtra show, and no wonder; Aquadrop embodies the sound of now but gives it a fresh, exotic twist. Expect chopped up, reverberating vocals, gorgeous 80s synths, warbling SFX and a layered soundscape. Perfectly articulated globular beats sit against woodblock tones, popping and perforating the otherwise hazy atmosphere. Essential.
Review: An utterly raucous cut here from Aron Airaghi aka Aquadrop in the shape of "Dots". The Italian producer has a long musical history: a skilled piano and flute player, he formed a jazz-funk group in 2001, and currently works as a sound designer for Good 50X70, an international design exhibition. On this single for Eight:FX he effortlessly combines plaintive female vox, heavy piano stabs, pitter-patter beats and omnipresent bleep-ridden melodies, with some nice subtle builds and drops. Essential and highly recommended.
Review: With a huge range of fans including Jawkob, Whistla, Mistajam, Untold and Skream, Milan's Aquadrop is bound to gain even more followers with this excellent collection of frenzied, futuristic garage-inspired beats on L2S. "Soul" uses a kaleidoscopic range of short vocal samples and wraps them around deep string pads, punchy bass hits and high-pitched drum hits. "Evolution" follows the same formula, but this time the effect is less garage and more warped Italo/boogie, all arranged with a down-low swagger to the beats. It's an absolute gem, and combined with the darker thrills of "King Of The Jungle", all adds up to a hugely impressive EP.
Review: Following on from his most excellent Aurora Borealis LP on Eight:FX last year, Italian Aquadrop tunes right in to his Night Slugs meets Hessle Audio vibes in this next venture on Trenchant Dubs. Exploring new territory, "iLICK U" (clever word play noted) is a future garage driven number with analogue synths in a Joker/Joy Orbison/Girl Unit style and glitchy beats running over reverbed vocal snatches. It certainly makes for interesting listening and is a track that ticks all the boxes. With a wide reaching appeal, expect to hear a lot more of this one in the coming months.
Review: Some full-on mentalist bassline magic from Italian producer Aquadrop, who goes wild on the excellent "Brukout" sounding like A1 Bassline after 19 espresso coffees! Swapping beats, chopping up vocals fearlessly and piling synths on top of each other makes for a huge amount of fun, and the half-step pop of "Waves" backs it up perfectly. The gorgeously screwed vocoder vocals of "Beautiful Girls" rounds it off in style - fierce and frenetic fun all round!
Review: Italian producer and 808-aficionado Aquadrop joins Top Billin with a bass-heavy track featuring vocals by Rayna. With releases on Mad Decent, Main Course and Seclusiasis, and the likes of Diplo, Flosstradamus, Baauer constantly spinning his tracks, Aquadrop's reputation stands before him, and he doesn't disappoint. Mango-sweet and full of hot, tropical vibes, "Bloko Bloko" kicks off in a dancehall style before dropping down deep to a severe bassline pounding set to shake thousands of asses. Remixes in this pack come from Philly's street bass kings Starkey and Dev79, tropical ghettomaster Douster and Australian newcomer Gucci Boo The Ghost Producer, all adding their individual twists to this tasty little cocktail. Party like it's Christmas in July!
Review: Armada Deep offer up their contribution to this year's ADE compilation mountain, which comes packing 20 very solid house cuts. The emphasis this time out is on uplifting peaktime fodder built with bigger rooms in mind - while Armada Deep HAVE put out some seriously deep house grooves over the years, you'll find few such here. But this collection is well worth checking out all the same, with cuts ranging from Thomas Newson's big, strutty 'The Worker' to Olav Basoski's fiesta-tastic 'Duende', and from more commercial cuts like MistaJam's 'Trust You' to Phil Fuldner's Glitterbox-friendly 'Take Me' to the unabashed 90s podium nostalgia of Kokiri's 'Adolescence'.
