May 9, 2025
What Sonic?
Naming a track Eurostar means you cant mess about—and does this deliver on the pledge of peak European Project optimism. One can practically see a gold-starred-and-blue EU flag fluttering in euphoric slow-mo, overlaying a high-speed train departing Waterloo, promising accelerated connection to the cultural wonders of The Continent. Synth-strings and deep timpani reverberations merge with a Moroder-esque bass, while train-tunnel doppler effects whizz by and early-adopter glissandos transport us to better wine. Passenger Announcement: there will be a direct connection to the Trans-Europe Express, no delays expected. A looped, layered and pitched cimbalom casts us into Drones woozy radiophonics dream, but this is subterfuge; an elegantly robotic synth comes to the fore, as proto-electro riffs and bass pads recall cultish Carpenter-esque soundtracks or obscurely cryptic video-game aesthetics. Drones post-cyberpunk, electro-acoustic stone-tape theory evokes occult themes from deep in the archives of Sheffield public library. Boomwa, finally, takes the then-newly-released Novation Bass Station into deep territory, its mobius-strip bassline in contorted contention with panned cymbals and emergency siren-like toplines, hinting at a tougher edge that emerges as hard claps push into EBM regions while skittering hats sizzle. This is a slow-burn lava-lamp techno offering, an underground lake of fire in which everybody dances ecstatically.