There’s something irrational about dance music. When the bass hits at exactly the right moment, and a stranger next to you smiles at you for no reason, when you feel that you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Sporty O, apparently, is familiar with such a secret formula – and on the recently released EP “The P.L.U.R. Project” has shaped it into music. P.L.U.R. – Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. Four words that rave culture formulated back in the early nineties and that since then have managed to rise to the status of a manifesto and, unfortunately, fade a little from excessive use. Sporty O takes this abbreviation and uses it as a working tool and tries to return weight to these words – through the structure of sound. In one of the tracks on the EP you find yourself in a state of euphoric uplift, in another – in a quieter, more focused perception, the music leads away from the general noise.
The EP moves flexibly, there is no genre rupture and demonstrative mixing – rather, a natural flow where different shades of electronic music add up into one line. A recording of seven tracks that follow one another along an emotional arc. To listen to “The P.L.U.R. Project” as a random playlist means to miss the main point. There is a route here, and a stop on it makes sense.
“Spirit Higher” opens the EP like a punch to the ceiling – in a good way. A dense electronic groove with a carrying tribal percussion. The bass line clearly stretches towards afrobeat, and it is precisely this turn that gives the track a physicality that pure synthetic sound always lacks. The single explains the whole project in four minutes. But Sporty O does not keep the listener in one state. The next step is unexpected, and that is the whole point. “SOLD!” bursts in with provocative energy: the title is read like an exclamation at an auction, and the track leads – insistently, with character. A syncopated rhythm, sharp synthesizer attacks, ethnic percussion inserts that appear like a dotted line. If “Spirit Higher” lifts the mood, then “SOLD!” seizes it.
Without giving a chance to recover, the EP throws the listener into “Revolution” – and here the degree rises to the maximum. A track politically charged by its title sounds accordingly: increasing synthesizer layers, tribal drums beat like a call, vocal samples float between a march and a mantra. The climax of the first half of the EP is a track after which you need air. And air appears in the form of “Happy Together”. After the revolutionary onslaught of the previous track, space opens up in it: a warmer timbre, light Latin percussion, synthesizer pads with a wide stereo field. The expectation does not deceive – the track really is about the joy of being next to other people. Dancefloor euphoria in its purest form.
However, Sporty O does not let you relax for long. “Geek’d Up” brings back the sharpness – with a smirk. A very playful track: synthesizer riffs with a light funk tint, a broken rhythm keeps you in shape. Electronic inventiveness is heard to the maximum – the track sounds like a successful experiment that works perfectly on the dance floor. After the game comes a confession. “Piece of My Mind” sharply changes the tonality, downtempo with a meditative pulse and orchestral textures that surface and go away like a memory. Sporty O does what dance electronics rarely allows itself: slows down the rhythm and the gaze. “Cheveyo” closes the EP the way a good evening ends: with a long exhale. The title refers to a Native American name meaning “Spirit Warrior”. Ambient electronics with long synthesizer tails, deep tribal percussion in the background, castanets convey the particular mood. Not a period – an ellipsis.
Dance music of recent years is going through a strange period: technically it has become more perfect, more accessible, and louder – but the conversation about what it exists for has somehow been lost. The EP “The P.L.U.R. Project” brings the question back to the agenda – without moralizing, without lectures – through music. And perhaps this is exactly what Sporty O wants – to remind that dance music can be a way to forget oneself and a way to pull oneself together. Plato would have liked it.
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