S. Maharba is male and was born in Ipswich, England. Thats all thats known about the musician. It seems to have become a well working strategy to obscure ones identity as an artist in order to create some kind of hype around ones work. S. Maharbas music got its face through a stringent cover-design: its the face of Pin-Up-Girls in a uncommon coarseness thats been embellishing his works. Maharba has developed quite an attractive concept, which combines the artists mysteriousness, good women-photography and an uncategorizable sound, and its again this combination that can be found on his new 12. »French Maid« can easily be interpreted as a sexy song title with a little bit of fantasy and some experience in erotic films, and even S. Maharba himself has categorized his tracks as “Erotica” on soundcloud. Fair enough – because trying to find an actual genre for it all would be sheer nitpicking. In the beginning, synthz from the 80s are being mixed with some kind of Ibiza-Techno-flair, soon there are basses and bleeps à la Flying Lotus joining in and trying to find their way through our eardrums. What follows are shorter and slower passages with some French samples, which sound like Boards Of Canadas relaxed beatmaking. From minute three on, it could actually be an instrumental by Clams Casino. All in all, its a song thats just as multifaceted as Maharbas EPs have been so far. The B-side is a remix by The Clonious from Vienna – the song starts out as if a war has broken out in a wasps nest. Then, a dubsteppy bassline begins to break through the countrysides disharmonies. Until the very end, the song remains a hunt through bongos, hectic shakers and the mentioned bass line. The remix only leads to the need to turn the record around one more time – lets say the B-side doesnt actually improve the 12inch.
