Natural Phenomena

Paradoxes abound on Natural Phenomena, the debut EP on Kindergarten Records from Brooklyn-based DJ and producer, Ayesha. On it she confronts subcontinental nostalgia with angular percussion and warm, hypnotic atmospherics, and weaves in her Indian upbringing by evoking the country's lush environments and sounds. As she puts it, "this is cultural memory channeled into universal club format." The record is built on a bedrock of stuttering syncopation: bells caught in the splash of a sub-kick, or the bracing rattle of chopped breaks. Its sense of coherence is amplified further by Ayesha's knack for using vocals, as with the Ma Sheila inspired meditations on 'Infinite Space', or the impish yips that propel 'Clarity''s bouncy chatter. So too by her irreverent sound design: mallets that crack and shatter like glass, modular sprays of rain or hand-drums pitched to emulate synths and bass.There's something earthy about these compositions, too: an almost audible layer of dust or moss. The chanted refrain swirling around 'Liminality''s rave-ready workout example, or the throb and gurgle buried within 'The Club is a Sea'. In Ayesha's words, Natural Phenomena is "an undulating love letter to nature and the dancefloor, [a] space where [her] biophilia collides with her yearning for the dancefloor." With enough to satisfy the mind, body and soul, this is would be one to draw for, were dancefloors a widespread possibility tomorrow.