4 out of 5

Label: Analogical Force

Produced by: Max Ravitz

An effectively slick cut of acid house / acid electro jams from Brooklyn-based Patricia, aka Max Ravitz.

With Patricia’s last appearance on Analogical Force, the beats were absolutely delightful, but had a taint of the derivative to them – beholden to Rephlex aciders of yore, true for a lot of AF’s crew – preventing the songs from really taking off on their own. This followup wholly sidesteps that limitation, with some of the beat-countering synth lines dancing around the tones / melodies of, say, classic Aphex Twin, but it’s truly just an inspiration: Patricia layers these melodies on top of The Ooze’s pleasant beats with a playful and wandering sensibility that feels true to the EP. The accompanying low end errs toward electro somewhat on the B-side, and more bubbling acid house on the A-side, but it’s not a hard line, and is synced up by Ravitz’s production, which really intriguingly “mutes” the beat and lets the synths take the focus as needed – it’s a very digital, and club-friendly but kind of intimate approach that separates the sound from a lot of beat- / percussion-heavy peers. I’d say the only place this feels a little less compelling is on ‘Flot,’ on which the core loop never quite breaks out as the other tracks do, content to stay in its rather chill lane for its runtime. Definitely an enjoyable track, but maybe needed one more track as buffer to smooth it out in the sequencing, or it could’ve felt more substantial on an album.

Regardless, while Patricia’s previous drop on AF was fun, this is the one that shows me Ravitz has been able to move beyond his influences, and definitely makes me interested to see what else he’s been up to between the releases.