The Lights

While *The Lights* is technically an EP, the cohesive flow of these eight songs plays more like an abridged album. Sinjin Hawke’s take on electronic dance music is equally rooted in orchestral house and classic R&B. “Shadows” airlifts its listeners and drops us off in the middle of a song already in progress (delivering us fashionably late to the party). Over looped crowd noise, synthetic horn blasts, fluttering synthesizers, and ever-changing drum-machine patterns, the song plays like an elongated intro. “Like That” really gets things going. It features sequenced handclaps and a throbbing rhythm, which works as a foundation for the Barcelona producer and DJ to layer stutter-step beats under delightfully sleazy, downpitched hip-hop samples. Hawke reinvents the lowrider slow jam with “Love Is on Your Side,” an innovative slice of soul with wailing vocals pitched up at a cartoonish speed bordering on ridiculous.