Audio Asia: Stones Taro summons the rave with the break-heavy flex of 'Come Over Me'

Title: Come Over Me
Artist: Stones Taro
Label: Breaks 'N' Pieces
Release Date: August 20

Kyoto-based beatsmith Stones Taro lands on Cheeky Music Group's Breaks 'N' Pieces label with his break-heavy and decidedly UK-flavoured 'Yakusugi EP'.

Since emerging as a production force in 2014, he's released a fast-flowing stream of wildly varied music on labels Lost City Archives, Dansu Discs, Strictly Flava, Scuffed, and many others. Though he surfs genres with effortless ease, much of his work contains distinctly UK-leaning aesthetics, and he continues along this theme with the latest four-tracker. Influenced by rave, jungle, UKG, and breaks, Taro expertly channels all of these sonic sensibilities into the varied lineup. The EP opens with the subtly brooding flex of 'Again', with sparse drum & bass rhythms rolling over dub delays, full-bodied bass, and atmospheric ragga licks. Title track 'Yakusugi' features spaced-out effects soaring over classic jungle breaks, supplying a slick tonal contrast between the raw drum patterns and celestial synth harmonics. Closing track 'Rare' encompasses vintage battle break scratch samples permeating rough, high-tempo beats, with saucer-eyed effects and tripped-out textures adding to the track's discreetly dark quality.

Employing a familiar sound palette while gently diminishing the quickfire tempo of the rest of the EP, our choice to play you here is 'Come Over Me'. Once again making full use of classic samples and hard-hitting rave loops, the slow-mo breaks cascade through a spacious panorama as delayed vocal chops add power to the undeniable groove. Deftly fusing tried and tested sonics with futurist intent, Stones Taro serves up a rousing selection of crowd rockers that add gravity to his continually evolving and ever-growing back-catalogue.

Stones Taro 'Yakusugi' EP is out August 20, you can buy it here