UK live performance stalwart Si Brown as MQSA returns with the Enmity Voidance EP, a sleek five-tracker that feels both finely engineered, energetically sharp, and instinctively loose and juiced.
As if each track is quietly mutating in real time
UK live performance stalwart Si Brown as MQSA returns with the Enmity Voidance EP, a sleek five-tracker that feels both finely engineered, energetically sharp, and instinctively loose and juiced. It’s a collection neatly built on riotous push and pull—expansive atmospheres folding into fractured breaks, rhythms stretching and snapping back with elastic precision. There’s a constant sense of motion, as if each track is quietly mutating in real time.
The title track sets the tone with a fluid traversal through broken beat funk, its groove never quite settling but always landing. Layers of modal harmony shimmer beneath crisp, shifting percussion, while arpeggiated lines glisten and refract like light through glass. There’s a sweetness to its surface, but underneath sits something taut and controlled—every element dialed in, every transition purposeful, giving the track a restless elegance that keeps it hovering just off-center.
“Broken Identity” leans harder into propulsion, scattering belting drum patterns across a widescreen backdrop. It moves in surges—drops that feel earned rather than imposed—each one opening into spacious, almost cosmic passages before snapping back into rhythmic focus. The interplay between density and openness is key, with textures that feel familiar yet continually reshaped, like fragments of memory reassembled mid-flight. “True Nature” shifts gears into a more playful, funk-driven space, riding a quicker tempo with a looseness that feels almost improvisational. There’s a clear nod to the electro-funk lineage—something akin to Fila Brazillia at their most limber—but filtered through MQSA’s lens. Rubbery basslines, clipped synth stabs, and flickering percussive details give it bounce and character. The groove is immediate, but it’s the fine-grain movement within it—the folds, the little turns—that make it stick. A standout.
“Syllabic Roots” takes a more textural route, built on intricate, interlocking patterns that scatter and recombine across its runtime. High-end details sparkle against a grounded low-end, creating a sense of vertical depth. It’s hypnotic without ever locking into repetition—subtle rhythmic shifts and tonal variations keep it alive, constantly rephrasing itself while maintaining a steady forward glide. Closing track “Jewel” pulls everything inward. Where the rest of the EP stretches outward into rhythm and space, this one settles into mood and tone. The percussion softens, the harmonic palette deepens, and the track unfolds with quiet assurance—less about impact, more about resonance. It feels like a closing statement that doesn’t resolve so much as dissolve, leaving a lingering afterimage.
Across all five tracks, MQSA shows a sharp instinct for pacing and structure, weaving complexity into forms that never feel overworked. This is dance music in full scope—restless, detailed, and deeply considered, but always anchored in the physical pull of some cracking rhythmatizm. Tight.
Enmity Voidance is available on Bandcamp.
