Just as some master chefs have turned their backs on exotic ingredients for the reliable joys of locally sourced product, there has been a recent tendency in the more outré genres of electronic music for producers to direct their skills toward the simpler delights of house and techno. The Scottish producer and graphic designer Konx-om-Pax (aka Tom Scholefield), best known for abstract electronica and refracted rave memories, is the latest producer to follow Joy Orbison, Pangaea, et al into the welcoming embrace of the four-to-the-floor kick. This pivot toward clarity has helped to surface previously submerged melodic skills: His four-song Refresher EP features two of the most immediately rewarding tracks he has committed to computer memory in “Cascada” and “Species With Amnesia.”
“Cascada,” in particular, is a joyful banger, the kind of half-dreamy, half-strident tune that has become a hallmark of the misty-eyed rave revival. It’s a pretty simple set up: a scratchy melodic riff that clambers up the rhythmic framework like a Shakespearean lover ascending his betrothed’s balcony, whispered vocal hooks, and a hands-in-the-air second act that brings to mind Orbital at Glastonbury 1994. This nod to ‘90s dance culture is not without precedent. Caramel, Konx-om-Pax’s most recent album, was also based on rave throwbacks, but whereas those tracks were faded, woozy, and indistinct—Scholefield called them “photocopies of photocopies of rave tracks, where the drums have dissolved”—here the memory is pulled into sharp rhythmic and melodic focus, revealing a gift for a nagging hook that was not immediately obvious before. The central riff on “Cascada” may sound simplistic among Konx-om-Pax’s more nuanced recordings but, like “Wild Thing” amidst a world of Sgt. Pepper’s, it just works.
“Species With Amnesia” is similarly forthright, riding a raucous kick and an Italo bass riff that wouldn’t sound out of place in a mainstream techno club. Above this, the song’s musical surface is warped and dangerous, like a record left out in the sun that you can’t bring yourself to throw out. The effect is malevolent yet energetic, suggesting the dark satanic mills of Boards of Canada’s Geogaddi gone inappropriately disco. The third track on the EP, a subtle yet effective re-rub of Caramel’s title track from µ-Ziq (aka Planet Mu label boss Mike Paradinas), makes a similar point about the rewards of pulling Scholefield’s music into focus. Paradinas’ “Caramello Mix” stabilizes and sweetens up the wobbliness of the original track, and the added polish helps the song’s lo-fi melody to shine without betraying its crumbling romanticism.
The EP closes with Huerco S.’s take on another Caramel track, “Beatrice's Visit,” which stretches and spaces the original out into 11 gloriously airy minutes. The remixer’s customary sprawl means that focus, admittedly, is slightly lacking, but he leaves the consciously rough sound of the original track immaculate and sparkling. As “Beatrice's Visit” drifts to its elegant end it becomes apparent that the Refresher EP is well named. This seemingly rather odds-and-ends release doesn’t just highlight Scholefield’s production skills; it also cleanses the listener’s palate, resetting our expectations of the Konx-om-Pax sound. Ultimately, Refresher may prove an outlier in Scholefield’s catalogue. But let’s hope not: scraping away the grot and fuzz to expose the melodies underneath can be an unsettlingly naked moment for an experimental producer, yet Refresher proves that it can pay harmonious dividend.
