With Tippy Toes Eponymous Debut Ep, Lph Not Only Puts Out Its First Record By A Previously-unreleased Artist, But Also Delves Into The World Of Pure, Unadulterated Out-of-the-box House Music
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The duo—comprised of friends Morgan Wiley, of Midnight Magic, and Abe Seiferth, an established and revered engineer—have been around in some way, shape, or form for a few years (originally comedian and musician Reggie Watts was their vocalist), but only settled into their current state sometime around the summer of last year. There are two halves to Tippy Toes: one revolves around live synth freak-out jams that can extend for hours; the other—seen vividly on the EP—focuses on them distilling those elements into five-to-seven-minute-long tracks suitable for at-home and club play.
With the first note of the kick-off track, “Up and Up,” it's clear that Wiley and Seiferth are good-humored and keen on making music that's both endlessly enjoyable and deeply complex, nuanced. The boogie centers on a a few dueling bouncy basslines, Balearic synth washes, and tweaked-out acid licks. “Swizzlestick” is a bit tougher, the bass thicker and denser. But the easy listening-style guitar hooks and spacey keyboard lines lighten it, allowing the song to float into the sky. With the last track on the A-side, “La Parguera,” Tippy Toes remove drums from their production entirely to yield an enchanting, meditative song that evokes some of Tangerine Dream's trippier moments of the 70s.
On the flip, though, the vacation is over and the duo is back to business. “The Naughty Dip” sounds exactly like you think it would—a noodling, delay- and reverb-heavy saunter that climaxes with one hell of a nasty drop. “Under Toe,” a sharper, more deliberate body-mover, concludes the party by incorporating elements of the other four tunes into an epic grand finale, fireworks and all.