The man with a hand in Hypercolour, HypeLTD, Glass Table, Losing Suki and Sneaker Social Club has such an inexhaustible enthusiasm for all forms of electronic music that he is starting a new label! Space Hardware is Jamie Russells latest project and comes to fruition with the inaugural sounds of Placeholder, an artist Russell unearthed one afternoon on Soundcloud. The labels MO is simple: to release spaced-out headphone music for the rave generation, where this debut EP consists of two original tracks from the mysterious Placeholder, plus a tidy remix from Uncanny Valleys Jacob Korn.
First track "Brothers" goes deep and introspective, spiralling around in some underwater chamber à la house of Hot Flush with plenty of echoing, filtered voices, darting synth notes and swollen sub belches. It marks an auspicious entry into the world not only for the artist behind it, but also for the label on which it?s released. On the flip, "Don't U Know" is all wallowing, teary ambiance, lapping claps and sad robot voices to start with before it grows into a skipping, ticking and delightfully harmonic garage number. It's spring-like in its colour and delicate charm and features plenty of melodic invention that gets your heart doing flips and your feet tapping in time. Uncanny Valley and label head, Jacob Korn turns "Don't U Know" into a bumping Todd Edwards-esque Gospel house number, punctuated with all the same colour and streamlined liveliness as the originals, closing out a very handy release in style.