Amber - Keep It Gone by Ambivalent / Valence

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Kevin McHugh aka Ambivalent returns to Mobilee with his second full release under his more house-inclined alias Amber. Having launched the alias with the Waves of Grain EP in January, McHugh has already graced several parties as Amber this year, playing a classic NYC/Chicago house-influenced sets (with an Amber set at Richie Hawtin's ENTER. night at Space Ibiza set for September). Meanwhile McHugh continues to evolve his Ambivalent techno productions, with a hugely popular recent acid remix of Danny Daze on Jimmy Edgar's Ultramajic label, and a collaboration with Michael L Penman on Tronic that continues to climb the techno charts.

The Amber project is one of several McHugh is maintaining at the moment. Originally starting as part of the collaborative project Jake & Amber, their 'This Is Mine' release kickstarted a wave of creativity that allowed the NYC/Berlin producer to explore more melodic sounds influenced by the house music he loves. Having signed the first batch of productions to Mobilee, this second EP is led by perhaps the biggest of all the Amber tracks so far, 'Keep It Gone', which loops its insistent vocal hook over a continuously swelling and subsiding bassline, retaining a sharp acid edge to counterbalance the track's sweeter vocal-inflected side.

This balancing act plays out in the EP's two other cuts, 'One Touch' and 'Pentagon', with both tracks constructed around ominous, powerful bass patterns, illuminated by flashes of synth melody and skittering vocal samples.