Elias Tzikas "She's Scared EP"

Greece is surely making a name for itself lately within the dance music community, seems you can´t turn around without hearing about a new up-and-coming talent emerging from this Mediterranean island. Which makes it no surprise to hear that the latest release from Peter Van Hal´s Deep Focus imprint is coming from Greek producer Elias Tzikas. With Deep Focus truly focusing on the artist´s original work (you won´t be finding any remixes on this imprint), it really gives a new artist a chance to show us what they´ve got to offer, and on this three track EP Elias gives it his all.

Across these three tracks Elias keeps a nice minimal approach to each, giving them just the right amount of colouring. The A side offers up the title track ´She´s Scared´, a funky little number that works well with its simple melodies and tweaked out female vocal edits. Over its seven minutes the whole piece builds into a wickedly strong groove, bubbling up with some intense acidic moments. ´Saved´ opens up the B-side, and is my favorite of the three. Here Elias goes right into a heavier, chunky beat complemented with a strong bass line and some electro moments that are sure to get some movement out of its listeners. ´Early Grave´ rounds it out, this time pulling from a more techno sound palette that melds nicely with his house structures. There´s a slightly creepy element to this track that keeps it intriguing and a little adventurous.

A solid first outing for Elias, each track complements the others well and bring a fresh offering in the current electro climate. My only wish would have been for slightly more diversity across the tracks, as the tone and content didn´t really deviate from the original set up. If the content wasn´t as strong this could have been a larger issue, but with Elias´ talents it´s nothing that takes too much away from the whole release.