- Could it be so simple? Yes, it can, DVS1 says on Love Under Pressure. It's producer Zak Khutoretsky's debut bow on Derrick May's legendary Transmat imprint, and he takes after the celebrated producer with clean lines, propulsive beats and an ear for the dramatic. What else do you need? May made his name on the formula before quitting to become a full-time High Tech Soul DJ evangelist. Plenty have followed in his footsteps since. DVS1 is no different. And, yet, he is.
Khutoretsky's synths on Love Under Pressure are fuller, rounder, more vibrant. It's as though he's taken all of the energy that someone like Ricardo Villalobos puts into the micro and pours it into the macro. Both of the melodies that drive the two tracks here positively sing, pushing and pulling the drums to keep the pace. Hi-hats tick excitedly, bells quiver like jellyfish, static cuts through the air like a knife. It's the flipside to Berghain's raw techno, reveling in how absolutely empty the space behind the music can be. As Ben Klock's recent mix on which "Pressure" features proves, though, techno is a circle—not a straight line. It fits in perfectly with a set from one of the genre's finest DJs because good music is good music, no matter the sound. It's just that simple.
Tracklist A Pressure
B Polyphonic Love