PREMIERE: Essco - Diva [Higher States]

Label/DJ Signup: ♫ ► Spotify Weekly Selections: ► Website: ► Youtube: ► Soundcloud: ► Instagram: ► Facebook: ► Twitter: Buy: Release Date: 24-04-2023 Presenting their first release of the year, Roger Martinez’s Higher States welcomes Essco to the label for his debut EP. Hailing from the UK, Essco first emerged in 2019 with the success of early tracks like ’Timelapse’, ’Withdrawal’ and ’Mirage’. Armed with a sound that incorporated the euphoria of trance, the groove of house and the mood of techno, Essco was hotly tipped as one of the progressive scene’s most promising new talents. Further successes soon followed with John OO Fleming’s Joof imprint and Univack becoming landing spots for his far-reaching sound. Now, following a contribution to Freegrant Music’s ’Fantastic Four’ series to begin the year, Essco adds Higher States to his resume with a four track showcase entitled ’Diva’. EP opener and title selection ’Diva’ finds Essco composing with a strong sense of space. With each sound being an event in a slowly expanding landscape, zooming out to reveal a world of scale in which depth and contrast coax perfectly with rhythm and melody. Wavy arps and balmy atmospheres highlight this mood lifting excursion, while commanding grooves and driving percussion keep things firmly on the dancefloor. The thought-provoking therapeutic experience that is ‘The Prophecy’ follows, and finds Essco shaping pyrotechnic effects around tough punchy beats and rippling rhythms, ultimating landing as a powerful mid-set excursion. Meanwhile, ’The Other Side’ continues Essco’s modus operandi that honors the wide musical scope he is most interested in. Building with an energetic pulse, its buoyant beats and rolling rhythmic structures eventually give way to fluttery arps and hopeful overlays, an amalgamation of sound which should play well in the morning hours. The UK artist’s molecular level of detail shines on EP closer ‘Defiance’, a main room assault where swaying chord stabs and muscular grooves chug mechanically against dissonant drum blasts and hopeful melodica, resulting in an exhilarating collection-closing escapade.