Animal Trainer – I Have a Cat EP (Get Physical)

How good is electronic music at the moment? It wasn’t but a jiffy ago we seemed to be drowning in tech-house-alikes, but someone seems to have let loose the creative and all of a sudden interesting music is everywhere.

Get Physical is a label that often piques my attention but releases like this one and Pezzner’s brilliant Squares EP have put it back up there on my sizzling hot list.

Animal Trainer have been rocking the Swiss capital Zurich and beyond, taming white tigers & black vinyl and running well respected Hive Audio for some time. They are one of those rare artists who tread the line between quirky and rocking [Smash TV, Paul Woolford] but manage it in an effortless, playable style which is no mean feat (but must be easier than making a tiger jump through a hoop though).

The wonderfully named I Have a Cat is a rare beast indeed. Percussively gregarious, beefily constructed and groovily presented, this is the type of record that has you sideways squinting at your fellow jock’s CDJ to take note for your next shopping trip. Not necessarily early doors, possibly peak-time in the right circumstances, but definitely a mid-set groover to work the butts and move the sluts.

There’s a chuggy, unhurried bassline, layers of shuffly, jingly percussion, melodic pads and some big synth inserts but this is mainly about the sublime way the groove fits together. Like a box of Lego, the parts look like nothing until you fit them all together and all of a sudden you have something cool, something unexpected, perhaps even something spectacular. Later in the track there are some other worldly vocals and a fairly long breakdown, but slamming straight back into that tight, nodding groove. Lovely stuff.

Yamato continues on the theme, chuggy, shuffly business with some nice synth melodies and interesting drums. It’s another worker, a mid-set gear-changer that you keep tucked away to step-up when needed.

The stand-out is I have a Cat but both tracks are very useable. Perhaps even shades of London X-press perhaps or Deep Beats Volume One.

Long may this run of fine material continue Get Physical. Check it out now.

Score: 8.5/10

Buy from Beatport here: