Review Summary: Representing the worst of electronic music in these days.
Cyril Hahn, a Swiss DJ, who currently lives in Vancouver, Canada, has compelled a lot of attention through several remixes on his Soundcloud account, most notably his “Say My Name” remix of Destiny’s Child. With his debut EP “Perfect Form”, he has produced his first originals to date. There are no remix parts or vocals he can rely on, so he’s playing it very safe – sadly.
You got ‘Raw Cut’, which is not raw at all and an arbitrary collection of sounds. Throughout the whole time, you are waiting for something to happen. A monotonous bass line and generic, female voices are constantly echoing till the end. Everything is supported by a dry drum kit and results in 4+ corny minutes.
The title track is an atmospheric synthpop tune and fits better into Hahn’s universe of love and longing. The lush drums, organ pads and the overall progression are tolerable, but the vocals from Shy Girls are quite out of place and do not end up in a decent harmony.
The lyrical content is poor and the refrain is not catchy:
“Still, it's your way
I'mma let you do this like you've done it before
It's my way
Don't seem to get me too far”.
“She's got perfect form
I love it when she moves like that
Moves like that”.
These phrases sound dangerously similar to Drake’s ‘Hold On, We're Going Home’ and are trying hard to fight against the stronger incoming waves of synths and bass – and lose in the end.
The remixes from Henry Krinkle and No Artificial Colours are suffering from the same issues and symptoms. They are unenthusiastic house-based interpretations, which are not offering any interesting new perspective to the listener.
As soon as the last few seconds of the EP fade away, the problems with Cyril Hahn’s music and his remixes become more and more obvious: His sound is limited and contains many acoustic properties of Caribou, M83 and Disclosure. The arrangements are basic and simple, but the key elements are not well executed and start to compete with each other. Either the instrumentals and synths get too weak or the vocals hover aimlessly in the sky. In the case of ‘Raw Cut’, both of them don’t work out right.
Hahn is pleasing the crowd and is not stepping out of his bright synth consortium. It’s a nerve-racking EP, existing of insubstantial tracks, which nobody is going to miss in the future.
