Club music has been booming. However, in a Faustian pact it has also exchanged musical depth for shallow, sugary highs. But hope dies last. A new generation of artists, among them Polygonia with her expertly curated QEONE label, has paved the way for more adventurous, deeper takes on techno. Antwerp-based Emily Jeanne carries the same torch. She debuted as a producer in 2020 on Svreca’s Semantica label with hard-hitting industrial techno, but when she inaugurated her own quỳnh imprint this year with the »Call of the Sea« EP, she made it clear that she was capable of much more. »Past Through Desire« now displays a similar knack for intricate sound design while offering itself up to DJs who want to take their audiences further than just from one tiktokable moment to the next.
»Twice Not Nice« opens the EP with a stoically grooving, slow techno stepper punctuated by whirling sequences—a tune that presents a crowd with some motoric and perhaps mental challenges. »Vague Gestures« nods to the darker pockets of the IDM cosmos while also taking some cues from UK bass music. This is a complex, but banging mid-tempo tune for the late morning hours. »Fire Lily« is even slower, opting for a industrial-dub sound reminiscent of Goner’s 2017 »Yogascum« album. With »Traversal,« the record picks up speed again without eschewing its rhythmic complexity. Past Through Desire is a lot bleaker in tone than its rather playful predecessor, and taken together the two EPs firmly establish Emily Jeanne as someone who wants to give the dancefloor more than just cheap thrills – a lot more.
