Artist: Elias Tzikas
Title: She's Scared EP
Label: Deep Focus
By: Colin C. | 12 March 2006
Tracklist:

• A1: She's Scared
• B1: Saved
• B2: Early Grave

Elias Tzikas "She's Scared EP"

Greece is surely making a name for itself lately within the dance music community, seems you can't turn around without hearing about a new up-and-coming talent emerging from this Mediterranean island. Which makes it no surprise to hear that the latest release from Peter Van Hal's Deep Focus imprint is coming from Greek producer Elias Tzikas. With Deep Focus truly focusing on the artist's original work (you won't be finding any remixes on this imprint), it really gives a new artist a chance to show us what they’ve got to offer, and on this three track EP Elias gives it his all.

Across these three tracks Elias keeps a nice minimal approach to each, giving them just the right amount of colouring. The A side offers up the title track 'She's Scared', a funky little number that works well with its simple melodies and tweaked out female vocal edits. Over its seven minutes the whole piece builds into a wickedly strong groove, bubbling up with some intense acidic moments. 'Saved' opens up the B-side, and is my favorite of the three. Here Elias goes right into a heavier, chunky beat complemented with a strong bass line and some electro moments that are sure to get some movement out of its listeners. 'Early Grave' rounds it out, this time pulling from a more techno sound palette that melds nicely with his house structures. There's a slightly creepy element to this track that keeps it intriguing and a little adventurous.

A solid first outing for Elias, each track complements the others well and bring a fresh offering in the current electro climate. My only wish would have been for slightly more diversity across the tracks, as the tone and content didn’t really deviate from the original set up. If the content wasn't as strong this could have been a larger issue, but with Elias' talents it's nothing that takes too much away from the whole release.