Hashtags are everywhere these days, so it’s no wonder somebody had to come up with a song or EP title of that name. With an impressive back catalogue featuring releases on Elrow, Material, No.19 Music and of course his own Leftroom, Matt Tolfrey has garnered a reputation as an open minded artist with the ability to both read and lead a crowd. With the masses of Tech House tunes being released every day, only a handful of producers stand out because of the quality of production they are able to offer. Matt Tolfrey is such a character and his new EP for Manchester’s prime label Kaluki underlines this once more in an impressive kinda way.
The title track hits hard with a powerful kick and a grooving low-end underpinning hooky vocal cuts, rave influenced melodies then provide variation to make the track a robust dance floor cut. AJ Christou’s take on ‘Hashtag’ follows, retaining the high-energy focus with exciting cymbal work, clean bass hits and airy atmospheres while also adding his own transitional flare to create intensely satisfying build ups and breakdowns.
An elastic bass hook, crisp percussion and chopped vocal samples drive underneath enticing mid-range motifs and rolling claps to create mesmerising rhythms in ‘Big Things’ before the shining light of the package, Greek maestro Mihalis Safras serves the definitive remix with an enormous powerful, yet haunting approach of the B-side that effectively is an A-side itself. LARGE!
4.5 out of 5
Reviewed by MANNIX