Ruf Dug, Cottam, Jascha Hagen & Luv Jam – ‘EP2’ [Gottwax]

Gottwax EP2 is the second annual release from the brains behind Anglesey’s Gottwood Festival, which provides us with a preview of this year’s upcoming event, by giving us a sneak peak of tracks from four of this summers acts.

Since its conception back in the summer of 2010, Gottwood Festival enjoyed instantaneous success and has continued to rise in popularity, year on year. Recognition of its success can be seen through the long list of award nominations it has gained, which include “Best Small Festival” and “Best Dance Event” (2012, 2013 and 2014), as well as making it onto The Telegraph’s “Ultimate UK Festival Guide”.

Last year’s Gottwax EP1 provided listeners with a few gems produced by friends of the festival including Behr, OJSmooth and Gottwood founder Eldoko. Following on from the success of last year’s EP, it was an easy decision to provide fans with more of the same and Gottwax EP2 does so, in the form of four tracks, produced by Jascha Hagen, Luv Jam, Ruf Dug and Cottam, who will of course, all be appearing at 2015’s edition of the festival.

Gottwax EP2 starts off with its strongest track Once I Had Love, given to us by Germany’s Jascha Hagen. This is a synth-driven, string-heavy, euphoric cut, which stops just short of perfection itself. From the off, the track’s drums establish a listener-friendly, upbeat tempo, which is complimented by the careful, systematic additions of the rest of the track’s ingredients, as the song goes on. By the end, once all the track’s components have been expertly added in, and with the strings at full force, we’re deep into euphoria and completely lost in the music. Jascha Hagen has put out a thing of beauty here.

Oiiiiii has a similar feel, but this track’s drums are much more vociferous in nature and are delivered with a more aggressive thump. As well as exquisitely combining the thumping drums and the piano, Luv Jam throws in a frantic hi hat to boot. All in all, a good track.

From the off, Ruf Dug’s Chatusbo reminds the listener of the soundtrack to Tron (both Wendy Carlos’s original, as well as the Daft Punk 2010 version). It wastes no time at all in introducing you to its exquisite bassline, which is soon thereafter accompanied by a piano. The track seems to get better and better as it goes along, and develops into a pretty chilled out number, which gets quite deep at times. A few minutes in, out of nowhere, we are treated to a delightful new age sounding electric guitar solo, where Ruf Dug really places the cherry on top. The EP ends with Cottam’s Facing It Head On, which is a nice, chilled, samba inspired track, which although not particularly outstanding, still rounds off proceedings very nicely.

Gottwax EP2 is a release done right. The composition and overall production of this release is nothing short of brilliant and it honestly offers no real weaknesses. Once I Had Love is certainly the EP’s strongest offering, but the other tracks aren’t a million miles behind by any means. With these four artists performing sets, as well as a whole host of other acts, this year’s Gottwood festival promises to be even better than the last (check out this year’s line up here).

Available from selected RSD outlets and Gottwax online store from 18th April, with the full release date set for 2- 4th May in all stores, take a listen to the SoundCloud preview below and keep an eye on the Gottwood shop for pre-orders.

Words @Khonje9

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