Brighton's DA-10 may strictly use vintage hardware to craft its expansive synthscapes, but the duo's work doesn't exactly come off as retro. With only an MPC 1000 and two Roland synthesizers, producers 10-David and Danalogue use the warm and rounded sounds made by their machines to explore the realms of instrumental hip-hop and space-funk, applying the instruments' inherently classic vibes to more contemporary templates.
"Out of Reach of Earth", which closes out the upcoming Shape of Space EP for WotNot (out April 29), DA-10 seamlessly blends the kind of handmade beats pushed by G-Funk purist Dâm-Funk with Lindstrøm's galactic keyboard chops for a tune that inhabits the stratosphere's starry environs as its feet land on the dancefloor. The skittering MPC rhythms eventually propel higher and higher out of Earth's orbit into a whorl of glittering arpeggiations and wavering chords, floating in a state euphoria before letting us plummet back into the world.