Trishes and Whizz Vienna are two Austrian beatmakers who, for the last couple of years, have been bringing it on their very cool Beattown label. This album is the fourth installment in a series of instrumental collections where each producer takes a side. What I like best about this record is that Trishes and Whizz have different styles. Trishes’ is more keyboard-centric, centering around big synth basslines and stripped-down drum tracks. “That’s Love” pairs a liquid bassline with swirling rhodes chords, and cool English spoken word interludes, while “Microgroove Me” uses a cut-up sampled bassline and layered percussion to make a heavy head-nodder. “Ill Brazil” almost sounds like slowed-down broken beat, with its midtempo funky drums and massive synth bass. Trishes adds cascading rhodes lines and cool flute samples for extra flavor. “Aeroflot” takes a refreshing jaunt into IDM territory with ambient synth pads and clicky, minimalist drums. Overall, he has a warm, funky vibe while Whizz’s sample-heavy approach creates a more moody, introspective atmosphere. “A Doctor’s Daughter Killed” is a nice boom-bap cut with cut-up drama samples and a well-placed vocal loop. It has much American appeal, as does “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me.” My only concern with the latter track is that it sounds a little too much like 9th Wonder with its stuttery loops and sped-up soul vocal hook. He gets his groove back on the laid-back head-nodder “Easy Way Out,” “Back on the Boulevard L” and the awesome “Slide Into Confusion” which takes me back to the New Breed/early DJ Vadim days of minimalist beat abstractions. Real nice. These guys are yet another reason not to front on the Austrian scene, along with Dzihan & Kamien and Vienna Scientists. Fans of European beatsmithery need to get up on this.

• DJ Verb

Source: groundliftmag.com

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