Povoa: EP Review – Layers

Jules Rosset otherwise known by his music moniker Povoa is a burgeoning French producer who is defined by his ability to create punchy, pulsating House music. Rosset is a former student of the American School of Jazz and Modern Music in Paris and it was here that he developed a deep attachment to electronic music. Fresh from the showered acclaim of Hiatus, his debut EP, Povoa has been crafting his sound and cultivating larger audiences on the festival circuit around Europe. His latest release comes in the form of 4 track, acid house inflected EP Layers on Moshi Moshi records. 

One constant of Povoa’s work is his intuitive ability to weave together seemingly obscure sounds to create riotous electronic music. Rosset makes his intentions clear from the beginning of Layers with Luciola, a whimsical, fun and addictively momentum- inducing floor filler. Luciola contains a bouncy, ceramic sounding beat, set alongside a pulsating, arpeggiated synth akin to the cartoonish delights of Todd Terje. It welcomes the listener with youthful vitality, blows hard at the right times and stirs the appetite for more.

The following track Weight projects less carefree levity but more of a tribal, visceral, impetuous sonic output. Full, phat and forceful Weight is aptly titled, its beat is the accelerant, going in hard and propelled by busying percussion to a crescendo of epic proportions. This track is a bespoke catalyst for many illprepared two-steps that may be enacted in my front room after completion of these words.

Much like their predecessor the tracks Ecorce and Krits are enthralling and relentless House bangers, differing in their more economic bank of sounds and their echoes of minimalist techno. The final track, Krits is an incessant, I-can’t-feel-my-calves kind of tune, its beat is a domineering rhythm that interlaces with sirenesque bleeps and vocal snippets; House nostalgia at its finest. A sure-fire way to puppeteer House music audience’s limbs and hearts. 

Layers is very certain of its goal. It blows up in your face at the earliest possible convenience and somehow manages to repeat the trick continually. It does this without pretentious narratives or pretending to be anything other than something intended to make you dance. Its beats are colossal, tectonic rhythms, its textures tailored to ascend and drop expertly, it’s raucous, unfiltered and beyond all this adjective use it is accessible and joyous. The musical equivalent of not looking at explosions after creating them.

Set for releases on the 25^th November off Moshi Moshi Records you can pre-order Layers by Povoa here.