Waves & Whirlwinds

Chronique

Waves & Whirlwinds is a brief, EP-length follow-up to Maya Jane Coles' expansive double-album Take Flight, offering a similar blend of tech-house rhythms and pop instincts. Coles excels at producing sensuous dance tracks which float and bubble yet have a steady drive to them. "Don't Leave" has cloudy, pitch-shifted vocal fragments and loose guitars which levitate over a chunky breakbeat, punctuated by samples commanding the listener to "get yo hands up!" "Other Side" begins with Coles reflecting on "the shadows of my mind" over an entrancing beat, and while it initially seems like the track is going to stick to a proper song structure, it quickly drifts away, as if to illustrate Coles' point about getting lost inside her thoughts. Detached vocals share space with dreamy melodies, occasionally returning to the phrase "see you on the other side." The more locked-in club track "Visionary" starts with a suspenseful sequence reminiscent of Detroit techno pioneer Robert Hood (who released his first few records under the name the Vision), but the beats are more indebted to U.K. garage, and Coles' wordless vocals still provide the track with a ghostly aura. While Take Flight was evenly split between uptempo and downtempo numbers, the only slower cut on Waves & Whirlwinds is "Isolate," a nod to Coles' trip-hop roots which contains staccato drum slaps over a brooding, Massive Attack-style bassline and swelling, distorted currents. Her vocals, again, are looped murmurings and intonations rather than coherent thoughts, expressing dark, vulnerable feelings rather than spelling them out.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo