Artist: Sean Cusick & Medway
Title: The Fiscal EP
Label: SAW Recordings
By: Chad Harnish | 16 July 2002
Tracklist:

• A: Columns of Clouds
• B: Graffiti

Sean Cusick & Medway "The Fiscal EP"

Sean Cusick (½ of Second Hand Satellites) has paired with Medway to deliver a two track EP on SAW recordings. It is to release later in the summer and is already popping up in playlists and charts around the world.

Columns of Clouds starts delivers slow unhurried breakbeats and drawn out vocal sighs to build an essence of laid back serenity. Lush vocal samples drift in waves throughout the track melding with the sprinkled synth drops. The breakbeat has a great pattern and complements the mood well. If I was asked who I thought this track sounded like, I would say, “Imagine if James Holden got together with Scott Hardkiss”. I hate to make comparisons like that since the obvious answer would be “It sounds like Medway and Sean Cusick” but I say it with the highest compliment to this duo.

Slowly introducing percussion elements from the start, ‘Graffiti’ builds to a deep groovy plateau and maintains its momentum throughout. With a brooding bass line riding beneath the percussion, the dark elements take center stage to deliver a menacing performance. Wisps of samples randomly wash across the track but the focus is left primarily on the electrifying bass line as it sets free furious emotions on the dance floor. This is dark. This is deep. As Sean might say, “pleasantly shocking”

The outcome of combining two top notch producers like Medway and Sean Cusick could not have been predicted but the resulting ‘Fiscal’ EP beat my expectations.

Sean Cusick has recently worked with Phil Charles on a track called Wormwood and Medway has worked with Blackwatch on a track called ‘King At The Controls’. Keep your ears on these guys.