Golden Features
Raka - EP
Album · Electronic · 2019
The Presets have long been one of Australia’s biggest electronic music exports, releasing imaginative, boundary-pushing techno-pop since the early 2000s (the duo famously toured with Daft Punk in 2007). But don’t think for a minute that they’ve lost their touch. On Raka, they team up with rising DJ/producer Golden Features, also from Sydney, on an EP of tunnelling, brutalist electro-house. The whole package is steeped in darkness. “Is anyone out there feeling dangerous?” Julian Hamilton taunts on the sinister title track, a joyride of sirens and synths that feels pulled from Grand Theft Auto. Coming from anyone else, it all might feel heavy-handed, but this trio know when to take their foot off the gas. “Paradise” and “Control” are headier rave cuts, layered with ethereal melodies and vocals about time and space. Fans of fellow Daft Punk disciple Gesaffelstein will relish “The End”, a menacing blend of techno and hip-hop that delivers more big questions: “Could you fill my vacant mind? Could you fill my empty veins? Could you feed this hungry heart? Could you shake these bones again?”