These days, discussions on the subject of electronic music will often, quite understandably, deal with the importance of innovation; there seem to be some critics who will dismiss an artist as “derivative” simply for displaying any hint of being influenced by another’s music.  This comes as no surprise, as there are indeed many producers who make their living by churning out passable emulations of whatever sound is currently held in high esteem.

On the other hand, it’s important to remember that good records can be—and are usually—made without forcing the listener to “reinterpret the meaning of electronic music” or some nonsense along those lines.  With that in mind, we turn to The Phantom‘s EP 2, a release that deserves to be noted not for challenging the status quo but rather for celebrating it, in the best way possible.  Hit the jump for the full review.

THE PHANTOM – CEREMONY (Silverback Recordings) 12″ by The Phantom

EP 2 brings four new tracks from The Phantom, and it is a mark of Warsaw resident Bartosz Kruczynski’s talent as a producer that this latest release seems to encapsulate much of why dance music is still worth your time.

The EP opens with one of its two shining moments, the excellent “Ceremony”; Kruczynski takes a fairly straightforward approach to the warped r’n'b vocal strain that seems to pervade the work of so many producers these days, but the infusion of retro-informed piano chords at about a minute in gives the track a playful, dance-worthy undercurrent that’s hard to resist.

Closing track “Colossus” finds The Phantom toying again with styles of a bygone era, with its glittery chords and slinky funk lead, but it is in the middle of EP 2 that he demonstrates an impressive comfort working in a variety of styles, offering two pieces that fit snugly into the current canon of nebulous bass music.

The weighty, melodic hip-hop of “Gothic” is the EP’s most emotional moment, an almost-sad number that might not be the best fit when compared stylistically with the other three songs on EP 2—it sounds more akin to someone like Night Slugs’ Jam City—but an interesting and well-produced track nonetheless, and certainly worth a spin or two.

Which brings us to “Voyeur”, the EP’s penultimate track, which proves to be The Phantom’s most contemporary and energetic inclusion, and the second of EP 2‘s pair of really superb productions.  Again, as with “Ceremony”, Kruczynski fools the listener with a fairly run-of-the-mill opening, a few woozy chord sweeps topped with a syncopated rhythm that together give an early hint of what will ultimately become a relentless piece of funky house.  Exploding into an exhilarating sugar rush of stuttering chords carried aloft on a torrent of clattering percussion, “Voyeur” highlights once more the central merit of The Phantom’s work; EP 2 presents no astounding or drastic innovations in production, no radical rethinking of melody, rhythm or style, but instead showcases a very talented producer as he works comfortably in an established medium, with the end result being a handful of clean and thoughtful productions, subtle tweaks and adjustments to a formula that has already been demonstrated to work quite well.

The Phantom’s EP 2 is available now as a vinyl-only release on the excellent and fast-growing Silverback Recordings.  You can hear most of the EP (excluding “Colossus”) below.

THE PHANTOM – EP 2 (Silverback Recordings, January 2012) by The Phantom