Various Artists – Curation 06: GiGi FM

Given that First Floor already explained the backstory behind The Third Room’s new Curation series of compilation EPs in the write-up of Curation 03: Verraco that was published earlier today, there’s no point in rehashing it again here. And no, we won’t be giving all six volumes an official recommendation either, though it’s worth noting that there isn’t a genuinely bad record in the bunch.

Funnily enough, that level of quality can mostly be attributed to—you guessed it—curation. Not in the sense that The Third Room picked the songs on offer (they didn’t), but because they enlisted a compelling cross section of modern techno artists to do the picking for them. GiGi FM is one of those artists, and on Curation 06, her selections reflect a taste for heady, hypnotic and somewhat tracky sounds. Opening number “The Half Bearded Man”—a song by London-based Australian Fergus Sweetland—plunges straight down the rabbit hole, its kick steadily pounding its way toward the Earth’s core, flanked by scuttling bits of sound design and a scary-sexy vocal that sounds like it’s communing with the underworld.

D-Leria lightens things up a bit with “Shark Attak,” a tune whose animated drum patterns give the subtlest of nods to carnival—the Caribbean kind, not the sketchy, unsafe rides kind. GiGi FM herself then pops up, working alongside German techno veteran Efdemin on “Anukari.” A bright and bubbly production, it’s got something of a ’90s Detroit vibe—maybe its the sustained string tones, or the sci-fi-ish bleeps, bloops and chimes—but it’s clear highlight of the EP, and one of the strongest cuts in the entire Curation series. That said, the record’s fourth and final track, “Even,” is no slouch. Crafted by Italian duo Fireground, it cranks up both the melody and the ethereal haze, swaddling its clattering rhythm in gauzy pads and the same sense of weightless bliss that comes with spending an hour or two inside a floatation tank. As the closer of both Curation 06 and the Curation series, it wraps things up on a rather euphoric note, and it’s hard to argue with that.