Dominik Eulberg - Sensorika

With a joint EP with frequent partner Gabriel Ananda in February and now this latest Traum EP, Sensorika, thankfully Eulberg's returning to his prolific ways. A-side "Aurora" is another of his crafty summons of dawn, a bit of slow-growth house that opens simply enough with dubby bass and pinpoint rhythms before revealing hidden pockets of melody. Eulberg's always made a virtue of patience, often building incrementally for six or seven minutes before unveiling its true center, and "Aurora" is no exception. As its fan-whirr synths and sturdy beat expand, he clears the air suddenly with a beautiful, Cathedral-top synth line and a melody that reminds me, briefly, of the sound UFOs emit in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, left alone in a brief ascent.

The b-side, "Sansula (oder der letzte Grund)" is a bit more utilitarian unfortunately. Atop a porch-front bell pattern and steady 4/4, Eulberg stalls after the first flickers of light. It's a reversal of method for the producer: its focal point emerges early, bound in the tight-wound castanets. For a producer so fingertip savvy in his construction of narrative, the track feels knuckled out, brute-fisted, for its delicacy on the surface, though the throb increases and the volume grows. Still, "Sensorika"'s worth seeking out for "Aurora" alone; few producers are so capable of sudden revelations, of brief glimmers of story and tale and detours concealed in seven thudding minutes of exposition.