Music Reviews
Deal With It EP by Pedramovich – Save You Records
While much of the UK’s current hype seems to float between Manchester, London and Leeds, over the last three decades Sheffield can shout its corner as the bona fide capital of electronic music in England. And while it may not have the size of its bigger compatriots, it manages to keep quirky and individual talents bubbling under and getting themselves continual attention. An Iranian-born Yorkshireman may not seem like the most obvious next in line, but Pedram Mehrshashi has put in the hard yards since his move to the North, immersing himself in the city’s club scene and slowly honing his production skills, grabbing work on Supernature, Renaissance and Alive in an impressive recent 24 months.
His latest, the Deal With It EP on London’s Save You Records, is a quintet full of zip and style, opening with the squelchy punch of Sizemore. Riffing to the Hollywood hellraiser, its spoken-word vocal cuts through the groove, replete with subtle percussive fills and drops that punctuate the handclaps and chords. Title track Deal With It employs ghostly melodies and metallic tics to build pressure before a warm, drawn-out break that drops back into cascading stabs. Parmigani Esperanzo rounds of Pedram’s work with a cut that slips into dream sequence territory, its insistent notes providing the spine around which the vinyl crackles, chopped-up percs and pads work their wonders. Two sterling remixes arrive in the form of Clement Meyer’s 80s infused, rasping take on Sizemore, while Shenoda edges Deal With It’s quirkiness into classic deep house territory, centreing on the groove and stretching into seven minutes of all-enveloping richness.
