VOLOR FLEX

Volor Flex is one of the fore runners of a talented crop of up and coming producers hailing from Russia. Rising out of a thriving electronic scene which spreads across the vast plains of the country, a scene that owes as much to the glitch beat alchemists of LA and the minimalism of Berlin as it does to the futuristic garage pioneers of London, and which is rapidly stepping out of the shadow of its influences and developing into a school of sound all of it’s own. The Conspiracy EP is Volor Flex’s debut outing on Apollo Records. Having previously released two full length albums on Dark Clover, part of the Bucharest based Origami Sound collective, which garnered critical acclaim far beyond the Russian borders, gaining admirers in the UK and US and earning Volor Flex a reputation as a producer firmly on the rise. Opening the EP with standout track About You, with its unmistakable debt to the dark, reverb laden garage that eventually worked its way into the corners of Croydon to emerge from it’s chrysalis as dubstep, Volor Flex shows himself to be adept in the dark arts of both swing and atmospherics. Full of vinyl crackle and with a cycling underwater pad swirling in and out of focus, the mournful, distant vocal steps in just as the beat clicks into it’s solid swung groove, and ‘About You’ takes on the feel of a future classic in the making. Pushing on from this impressive start, next up is The Conspiracy (featuring fellow Russian bass producer and regular collaborator, Encode) which ramps up the energy levels and brings up the bpm, Again, Encode is structured around a heavily swung garage beat, but this time it’s injected with more oaf a rolling feel, which raises the pulse rate before the track drops into an abyss of a breakdown, recalling images of a dystopian science fiction netherworld. Huge tares of aggressive synth pull at the beat, driving it forward while the throbbing sub bass propels the tune onward at a rate of knots that almost pushes The Conspiracy into drum and bass territory. The EP closes with Pressure, another collaborative effort - this time with Bulb City. The most ambient of the three tracks on the EP, Pressure features swathes of synth feedback moving in and out of focus and building a tense atmosphere before a strict, two note bassline and intricately crafted, skittering beat kick in, and the track takes on the form of a futuristic army march, the rhythm redolent of a squadron of robotic soldiers ceaselessly trooping into some intergalactic battle, while the ambience of a distant solar storm roars away menacingly in the background. The Conspiracy EP is a stunning forward leap for Volor Flex, signaling a move away from his earlier works towards a sound entirely of his own making. Remember the name.