Various Artists – Balance 027: Magda – (Balance Music)
DMC World Magazine
As it pushes on into the late twenties, the ‘Balance’ series continues to explore electronic music through an imaginative choice of DJs. Here the M_nus graduate Magda brings a contrasting pair of sets to our earphones, starting with a mix low on beats but high on atmospherics, working between nervy spoken word tracks and wider screen instrumentals but also happy to venture towards jazz territory with the likes of Gregory Fleckner Quintet, before gradually picking up speed and energy through the likes of Nicholas Desamory’s distinctive ‘The Truth’. The darkly shaded tracks work best if you listen closely, as there are a lot of subtleties here that could easily pass the casual listener by. If you let the first mix run into the second you get Andrew Pekler’s bluesy guitar (‘Pitch Class Spy Glass’) merging into glitchy beats (‘Dizzy Spells Of Summer’), before a much quicker tempo asserts itself and all manner of bass-led energy breaks free. Magda does really well here to select imaginative tracks that play with the four to the floor premise, including Murat Tepeli’s ‘P.S.A. (Play Stop Acid)’, Rework’s ‘In A Dance’ and the pulsing electro of Tom Trago’s ‘Fall Down On Me’ among an impressive list of 26 tracks. This particular ‘Balance’ is well worth setting some time aside for.
